Seeking asylum is a human right

By – Vishal Agarwal

“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”
— Emma Lazarus

India hosts more than two lakh refugees and is at the centre of refugee movements in the South Asian region. It has been a home to refugees from numerous neighbouring countries.

Since India’s independence and partition, it has had an influx of migrants from its neighbours, and this incident is not pertinent to the partition of India. The issue of the economic burden India has to bear and the significant demographic changes brought about by this inflow were frequently raised. In addition to economic and demographic problems, the refugee crisis also endangers India’s security. The legal demands of migrants, internally displaced people, and refugees have all been controlled by existing laws, although this has not yet been formally acknowledged. Although the matter has been partially addressed by current law and court involvement, there are still significant obstacles to resolving the bigger issue. Existing domestic laws regulating foreign nationals’ entry, stay and exit in normal circumstances are inadequate to deal with refugees. In the absence of domestic law for refugees and asylum seekers, there should be a domestic protocol on their status, assigning specific responsibilities to specific agencies. This will ensure prompt response and enhance accountability.

India follows the principle of dualism when it comes to Refugees; that is, international law is not directly applicable domestically and must be implemented through law by Parliament. But in the light of current international situations, we need to review the current scenario from a legal and humanitarian perspective. It is high time that a proper legal framework is set up for the same!
Refugees and illegal immigration are also two distinct concepts. However, both groups are treated equally under Indian law because of the Foreigners Act of 1946.

An individual seeking international protection from persecution is called an asylum seeker, and a country may grant refugee status to an asylum seeker. But sadly, there is no clear definition in India regarding this! Moreover, India is not a party to the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol – vital legal documents about refugee protection in International Law. As a result, the government’s policies and solutions to address these problems lack clarity and policy value. This leads to India’s refugee policy being guided primarily by ad hocism! This enables the government in office to pick and choose ‘what kind’ of refugees it wants to admit for political or geopolitical reasons. This is sad; ultimately, the refugees end up suffering.

However, India has signed numerous Human Rights Instruments that articulate a commitment to the protection of Refugees. India is a party to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) 1948 and has joined the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) -1966 and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR)- 1966 since 1979. India is also a signatory to -the convention on eliminating all forms of Radical Discrimination (CRED in 1965), which ensures equal human rights to all human beings without discrimination.

Moreover, Article 51(c) of the Indian constitution directs the state to respect and uphold International Law. Keeping all this in mind, we can say that a Refugee law has been awaited for a long time.
With the recent enactment of the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 (CAA), India further fails to address the real issue of refugees and exclusively addresses the issues of illegal immigrants, which are not the same as refugees. Furthermore, the CAA act goes against the basic principles of our democracy, like equality and religious non-discrimination enshrined in the constitution!

With traditional knowledge and values, progressive nations and economic behemoths like India might function as impetuses for international aid and asylum management.

By passing national refugee legislation, India may better calibrate its treatment of asylum claims in light of the global humanitarian and economic crises.

CASE STUDY ON VIKAS DUBEY ENCOUNTER

Nearly six months following the killing of four alleged gang rapists involved in the Hyderabad case, the ‘encounter’ of capitulated Kanpur gangster Vikas Dubey proposes a worrying model. Following many incidents of media publicity, the police appeared to give out information that the rule of law was established. Many spectators witnessed the police accounts of the encounters as not trustworthy.
One may assume that the encounter, killings and, deaths have forever been a fact, and those are elements of a significant problem with policing in India. Some also discuss that the slow progress of justice delivery anyhow legitimizes such acts. Moreover, the sum of the central principle on which the present state continues: legitimacy To organize my fundamental reasons, while politics, until a few years ago, tried to defend their nation in high-profile events under the table, worrying that people would see them as high-profile criminals – the newest form is to brazen it out and convince subjects that the robust state does not abide by the rule.
Let me illustrate the conversion from a historical view. Unlike modern states, which examined the legitimacy of religion, present states in the arrangement have expressed legitimacy for the people. As scholars like Louis Althusser and Antonio Gramsci have addressed, the current state has not only a coercive though also a bit of ideological equipment that attempts to persuade people of the vital decency of the country.
The present state has always pretended to sustain the rule of law as a split with the irrational behavior in which pre-modern rulers worked. It is assumed that the country will defend the rights of all and that any cut in life and freedom for offenses done would be as per laws.
It isn’t that this normalizing commitment has always been satisfied. There have been many examples of coercive state control being used to harass the weak. Though, what distinguishes the modern state is its effort to be seen as procedurally even when a crime seizes public notice.
This was true also of the exploitative colonial state in India, yet not so in the Dubey encounter killing case or the Telangana gangrape case. When an anti-colonial activist caught the people’s mind, the colonial state attempted to appear procedurally reasonable. The freedom fighter Bhagat Singh was placed to trial after his arrest and then executed. Also, the Indian National Army war veterans were put to the test at the Red Fort.

Post-independence, Nathuram Godse was granted a fair trial in the Mahatma Gandhi murder case and not killed instantly after his arrest. India witnessed two prime ministers – Rajiv Gandhi and Indira Gandhi, being assassinated. In the recent case, Mrs. Gandhi’s assassins Satwant Singh and Kehar Singh sustained a trial before being beheaded five years after the assassination. The Rajiv Gandhi assassination case of 1991 has moved on endlessly.
The offensive criminals Ranga (Kuldeep Singh) and Billa (Jasbir Singh) were too tried and doomed to death, in 1982, for the cruel torture and murder of Geeta and Sanjay Chopra, the teenaged children of a senior naval officer, in 1978. In this sight, criminal justice in high-profile cases – which were public awareness – identified a connection from colonial to independent India.
One significant limitation was the death of dacoit Sunder in police jail during the Emergency. It was speculated that the police shot him on an abandoned bridge. However, there was a CBI inquiry, and multiple officers of the Delhi Police – including DIG P.S. Bhinder – were arrested.

In situations that don’t become public awareness, it is seen that police have usually been high-handed. There have been “encounter specialists” like Daya Nayak and Rajbir Singh, who were frequently involved in pretended encounters. Though, these cases got notified after the assassination.

The latter six years have witnessed a regular shift in how the legitimacy of the state is created. Ironically, a modern state is promoting the belief that institutional distinctions are dull and prone to abuse, and trying to combine immediately with the people in ways that threaten institutions. It is usually done within the discussion of an influential leader with a personal connection with the crowds, with common institutional structures dissipating their legitimacy. This, in different words, is the discussion of the “hero” plus “savior”.The purpose of the difference may be a populist mood created in the preceding few years that accused an elite that controlled democratic institutions for the masses not being satisfied.
The Telangana conflict – an example where the police appeared to realize that people were viewing the legal practice not as an aid but as an obstacle to justice – perceived the gangrape involved being shot in a way that made numerous suspicion that it was a staged encounter. They were now in police custody and were led to the scene of the crime and shot dead when they supposedly tried to steal the weaponry of the police. The following day, TV channels praised the extra-judicial killing as justice and displayed people rejoicing it. This was something extraordinary from what had been observed after the Nirbhaya gangrape incident.

The encounter of Vikas Dubey, who had shot down eight police officers, is recognized by many as even higher brazen. As a severe criminal, Dubey wanted to be placed to trial to see who his allies were. After all, he had been advancing as a gangster despite assassinating UP minister Santosh Shukla in the morning in a police station.

Assuming an encounter, Dubey fled and was caught at the Mahakal temple in Ujjain. The public ‘submission’ before the media, he perhaps imagined, would keep him secure, and he would have to endure a trial. Though he was given over to the UP police, he was shot in a dramatically ‘encounter’, obstructing media vehicles just at a span where the encounter became reasonable. The police pretended that he attempted to seize a gun and fire at them. Many assume that the police could have captured him alive, as he was unarmed

The Great Indian Political Drama

Over the years, one thing that stands apart in India is Politics. Politics in India always comes in different costumes, sometimes it comes in the form of aristocracy, sometimes it’s dictatorship and profoundly for the past 7 decades, it’s taken up the guise of democracy– which has been considered as the best in the lot.

But, democracy in India suffers a lot of wear and tear, maybe because that’s how it works with all the blots, cuts and the stitches; certainly, you’ve always had a bad feeling about it. It didn’t even start off well: with all the controversies behind it, Mr Nehru became the first Prime Minister. Fifty years down the line, we’ve already had three Prime Ministers assassinated, five wars, riots and a nation-wide emergency as the cherry on the cake.

The Common Man

Certainly, the clever minds of Englishmen left us with many scars and wounds which are yet to be healed.

Apparently, the last one and a half decade seems to be smooth for the Indian democracy, but only for the outer world. Inside it, the termite is right on its duty and it’s hurting this democracy to its core. Now, this is a new India, with a western costume and a brain made of khadi. This India is transitioning into a coin, it has two faces: one for God and the other for the Devil.

This time, democracy suffers illogical protests, bloodshed of the innocent, scandals under the white collar and betrayal of the highest order. Day in and day out, strikes are occurring, some yell with logic and some don’t and eventually. After a few days, everyone’s back to first base. This state of Democracy needs to move beyond literacy and finally become truly educated.

How long must this go on?

But the question here is, whom shall you play the blame game with? From where will you find the players for this game? Is it the political parties? The media? Or the people? It’s the whole system that’s rattled right now and neither the victim nor the convict can be discovered here. It lies within us and sadly, stays within us.

2019 will be a major year for this nation; not only in terms of who comes to the centre but more importantly, this election might just change the very essence of what it means to be a common man in this country. After the failures and triumphs of the apparent right-wing ideology, whether the masses change their stance or give it another chance remains to be seen.

Alas, we don’t know who’s gonna win; let’s just keep our fingers crossed and hope that Democracy prevails.

Dystopia in the Crown Jewel

Harvey Milk, an American politician and the first openly gay elected official in the history of California once said that “It takes no compromising to give people their rights. It takes no money to respect the individuals and it takes no survey to remove repressions.” Though what he uttered was simple and the most rudimentary percept that every individual person in this day and age should hold in their minds, it is not necessarily something that everyone believes in.

India is a conglomeration of people of different religions, castes, languages, cultures and traditions, but most importantly India is an amalgam of people with different thoughts and beliefs. But, at the end of it all, we are united by our differences, the way we embrace and accept the differences among the family that we created.

Doesn’t it sound good to the ears?

Isn’t this all a nice little fairytale story which everyone has been hearing ever since our childhood and we were all naïve enough to fall into this fabrication? Most of us are familiar with the infamous Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code which criminalizes homosexuality or whoever voluntarily has carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal would be punished with imprisonment for life, or with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to ten years, and can also be liable to fine. Section 377 originated with the Buggery Act of 1533 which was drafted by Thomas Macaulay around 1838 and this act defined ‘buggery’ as an unnatural sexual act against the will of God and man.

Thus, this criminalized penetration, bestiality and in a broader sense homosexuality. It is both sardonic and imbecilic that the UK decriminalized homosexuality as early as 1967 while in India, this archaic law is still followed and regulated.  Over the years, the Supreme Court has been challenged with variety of lawsuits to take down Section 377 but none of them have been fruitful enough. In February 2012, clashes among the members of the Central Government resulted in Supreme Court reprimanding the Ministry of Home Affairs for frequently changing their stance on the issue. In December 2013, the Supreme Court set aside the 2009 Delhi High Court order decriminalizing consensual homosexual activity within its jurisdiction and it was decided that Parliament would debate and conclude the matter. During this stretch, most of the people from the LGBTQ community were prone to police harassment and almost majority of the society looked down on these people only due to their choice of identity.

Shashi Tharoor, member of the Indian National Congress is one of the most prominent people involved in the repeal of Section 377. But, his bill was rejected in the house by a vote of 71-24. Nonetheless, he hasn’t lost his optimism and is planning to re-introduce the bill. In 2016, the court ruled that a person’s sexual orientation is a privacy issue, in turn giving hope to the LGBT activists that the court would soon take down Section 377. In January 2018, the Supreme Court agreed to refer the question of Section 377’s validity to a large bench for examination before October. The Supreme Court heard various petitions on the validity of Section 377 on 1 May 2018. It issued a notice to the Indian Government seeking its position on the petitions and gave it until July to respond.

 

(From left to right, clockwise): Neil Patrick Harris, Troye Sivan, Caitlyn Jenner

Through the years, the rules bound to LGBTQ has taken many turns, some for the good and some for the worse. But, more recently India is in the brink of a breakthrough for gay rights. In hindsight, homosexuality isn’t a political issue, rather it’s a sexual and spiritual concern. Gay rights are human rights and it should never be a crime to be gay or to be your true self.

-Varsha V

 

The End Is Not The Answer

You see them celebrating their lives. Confined within their million-dollar villas, giving in to life’s materialistic nuances; smiles etched in bronze and satisfaction flung all over.

And then, there’s you.

The struggling student, the struggling sportsperson, the struggling artist.

The struggling human.

You stare into the endless sea, every cognizant wave synchronously ticking with the watch lying carelessly on your scarred wrists- reminding you of the past you could’ve had, only had you taken up the higher road.

At the end of it all- you might find yourself asking, “Why me?”.

Well, try this out. It might work, it might not; but it’ll definitely change something.

Walk to the nearest construction site. What do you see?

Men and women working their hearts out. Some have safety gear on, some couldn’t care enough to equip themselves with the same. At times, you’d see dreams and specks of wishful thinking flashing across their grim faces. Underpaid single moms, psychologically tortured isolated fathers and the occasional adolescent working away from the crack of dawn until the curtain closes late in the evening- all so he doesn’t end up tucking his little sister with an empty belly. Some are broken to the point where their daily lives are but means to an end. Such is the life of a blue collar worker.

After you feel you’ve had enough of disparity for an entire day, walk back. Walk back to the same home you walked out of, via the same door you had shoved aside previously; this time, however, you will walk in as someone totally different.

You shall realize that all this while, you’ve been the very definition of privilege. The end of every semester entails a month-long vacation back home and a loving family to return to. I’m glad I have them, many don’t. The fact that you’re reading this probably means you’ve a stable internet connection, a roof over your head, eyes to see and fingers to scroll down.

Be grateful you have them. Many don’t.

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Yes, you’ve made decisions you regret, but how would you ever value success without wallowing in its absence? Every mistake we make lends us a lesson we would otherwise overlook.

After all, isn’t that the entire point of life?

-Prajesh

A War in Vain

Free blew the winds of change,
with death and destruction in its wake;
my nation once so grand-
now a desolate wasteland.

Down fell the rich,
down came La Guillotine
relieving their heads of sin,
faces all over shaped with grins.

Lasted not long this composure,
the war but far from over-
for evil knew no class,
rich, poor- all engulfed in crass.

Stepped in the freemen-
promised they liberty and equality;
their integrity sold, more heads rolled-
leaving nothing but brutality.

Violence swelled, the rebellion felled-
The usurper finally did fail
like a snake at its own tail;
defeated, beheaded-
by another of his own kind.

Finally dawns the sun,
history taking a fresh turn;
so begins the age of conquest,
Internal rife laid to rest.

To this day, my mind wanders
Tyranny birthing tyranny,
hate begetting hate;
Was it worth, the strife?-
Forever tainting the beauty of life?

-Prajesh