UN rebuke to India

EDITORIAL: The findings of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) should concern anyone who believes that India’s constitutional promise of equality is more than a formal declaration. The committee notes reports of large-scale violations perpetrated by law enforcement officials against ethnic and ethno-religious groups and non-citizens.

These included racially motivated violence, extrajudicial killings, arbitrary and prolonged detention without due process, torture, and sexual violence against tribal peoples, Dalits, Bengali-speaking Muslims, migrants and asylum-seekers, all of which points to a profound gap between constitutional principles and ground realities.

India’s Constitution envisages a secular and pluralistic republic in which citizenship, rather than religion, caste or ethnicity, determines rights and dignity. Yet, under BJP rule, India’s political mainstream has increasingly been shaped by Hindutva — an ideology that places Hindu identity at the centre of the national project. This ideological shift is difficult to reconcile with the constitutional vision of an India in which all citizens, regardless of faith or social origin, enjoy equal protection of the law.

The problem is not merely ideological. When the political establishment repeatedly frames minorities, migrants and other vulnerable communities through the prism of religious or ethnic identity, it legitimises discrimination and creates space for abuses by state authorities. CERD’s concerns over Bengali-speaking Muslims and Rohingyas are therefore especially significant. Identity checks, racial profiling, arbitrary detention and forced returns are not simply administrative matters; when they disproportionately target already vulnerable groups, they become part of a wider pattern in which religion, citizenship and belonging are increasingly used to discriminate against minorities.

CERD’s findings lend considerable international weight to growing concerns over the marginalisation of Muslims, the normalisation of inflammatory anti-minority rhetoric and increasing pressure on dissenters, civil-society groups, and human-rights defenders.

Laws protecting minorities and disadvantaged communities mean little if law-enforcement agencies can act with impunity. Reports of extrajudicial killings, torture and arbitrary detention demand independent investigation and prosecution, not denial or deflection. Likewise, hate crimes cannot be effectively confronted when inflammatory political rhetoric is tolerated, or when those who expose abuses themselves face intimidation.

India’s democratic standing ultimately rests on whether its institutions protect minorities when doing so is politically inconvenient. Hindutva may be the BJP’s political creed helping it secure electoral success. The credibility of Indian democracy, however, depends not on the strength of its majoritarian politics, but on whether it can uphold equal rights for all of its multi-ethnic and multi-religious communities.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2026