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A United Nations human rights official has said that India's
record of religious tolerance is "satisfactory" and even though the
country's economic and social equations tug at levels of tolerance
of individuals and specific groups, India's commitment to
secularism and democracy are institutionally secure and generally
respected.
On Ayodhya and Kashmir, two flashpoints of religious intolerance,
the official depends entirely on information provided by the
Government of India for the former whereas for Kashmir he says the
special nature of the state and the armed conflict there has led to
a situation for the Muslim there that is not reflected in other
parts of India though what happens there will have an impact on
other parts of the country.
India's problem is not laws but economics and poverty which split
the society into two - one comprising the majority who are poor,
uneducated and illiterate and the other consisting of the minority
which holds the reigns of power and forms the social, economic and
culture elite, Abdelfattah Amor, UN's special rapporteur on
religious intolerance says in a report prescribed to the 33rd UN
Human Rights Commission (UNHRC) currently in session here.......
the economic and social structure of India are not conducive to
religious tolerance ... (but) the great economic and social
disparities in India are not based on religion and affect
everybody, irrespective of belief," the official says. He rings a
word of caution by noting that the economic and cultural poverty of
the most disadvantaged "is a fertile breeding ground for the
development of religious extremism and more generally for the
political exploitation of religion." Amoh says the Jammu and
Kashmir conflict as well as the situation in Punjab, the
destruction of the Babri Masjid and the riots in Bombay are
evidence of how politics can mix poverty and religion.
The 53-member UNHRC meets for six weeks each year in Geneva. In
addition to tracking human rights violations world-wide, the
commission appoints special rapporteurs to investigate specific
countries' human rights records as well as "thematic issues" such
as disappeared persons, summary executions, religious intolerance,
etc.
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