Bhutanese refugees: Big brother doing small
During his recent visit to Nepal, Indian foreign secretary Shiv Shankar Menon once again pushed the issue of Bhutanese refugees to Nepal and Bhutan to decide. More exactly the things are clear, India would prefer the issue to get prolonged and derive more benefits from Bhutan.
Regarded the largest democratic nation of the world, not to mention the closest neighbour of Bhutan and Nepal, India is less concern with promotion of democratic cultures and establishment of stability in the region. Having great influences in both these countries, also lying between them, India’s role in finding the solution of the protracted crisis is well expected for long, and is also important in reaching a conclusion.
In the high portfolio meetings of India and Bhutan, the Bhutanese refugee issue has never surfaced. This is India’s dire ignorance to strengthening democracy and human rights in the region. Not only Nepal, India has suffered from the Bhutanese refugee problem. Thousands of them still live in different parts of India. As the immediate neighbour, India would be the greater sufferer if the situation goes out of control.
On Monday, Nepalese prime minister Girija Prasad Koirala revealed the fact that India ignored the repeated requests of Nepal for mediation between the refugee leaders and Bhutan government. India has stronger position, as is its relation with Bhutan, to negotiate with King Jigme than Nepal has. Basically, the political turnover and changes in Bhutan are all controlled from New Delhi, mean to say the big brother in the south only holds the foreign policy of the country under the Indo-Bhutan treaty 1949.
India has never raised the issue of human rights violations in Bhutan nor of the suppression of press freedom there, while still advocating the issues in international forums. There are several reports from within Bhutan, not reported in any of the weekly tabloids published from Bhutan currently, of human rights violation cases in different parts of the country. Bhutan teaches erroneous definition of the human rights and democratic principles to its citizens.
Suppression of opposition is the basic rights of the northern Bhutanese, basically of the Bhutia community, while involvement of southern Bhutanese in any of the state mechanism is against the national interests and national integrity, no matter how meaningfully laws stress for equality. Bowing before the ministers or royal family members is loyalty to democracy and freedom, protesting against the torture, mistreatment, abuse and harassment is against the spirit of democracy in Bhutanese terms.
On the international human rights day, India organized thousands of formal programmes to promote human rights in the country, while still looking unprecedented and un-intermittent human rights violations in neighbouring Bhutan. The human rights day passed silently in Bhutan, with no forums for the victims to evoke grief. In absence of adequate forums in Bhutan, India must become the goodwill forum for victims of human rights violations in Bhutan, because it has been so to many such victims from across the globe.
India speaks of human rights violations in Nepal, Bangladesh Sri Lanka and most distinctly in Pakistan. Should it remain silent in case of Bhutan?
While it is on its roadmap to be the chief patron in matters of human rights protection and democracy in the global community, remaining silent to atrocities and abuses in the neighbouring state would be derogatory to counterproductive to its success ladder.
Democracy means justice to poor, marginalized and suppressed and legal punishment to suppressers, offenders. Democracy means bringing the unheard voices to mainstream politics and creating equality to all sexes, groups or communities. The Indian architects of modern democracy must inculcate same notions and nausea to Bhutanese rulers so as to make the latter responsible and accountable to real democratic values and human rights, to which they have expressed their commitment in the UN.
India has again become the architect of Bhutanese legal foundation after it disbursed an expert to draft the constitution. Support to formulation of law, not to mention the shortcomings of the constitution to protect the rights of the citizens, is not all in all to help build a democratic state. Practice is a must. Bhutanese rulers must be taught with principles of human rights, freedom, media and its values, independency of judiciary and role of the head of the state.
I should not miss to mention here that the recent invitation of the Indian foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee to King Jigme to attend the forth-coming SAARC summit in India is reviving totalitarianism in Bhutan. King should no more be the active part of the executive body, since the power has already been delegated to prime minister, in a bid to prepare a roadmap to people’s democracy. People’s representative should attend and explain the national interest but not an absolute ruler.
(Adhikari is president of Association of Press Freedom Activists, Bhutan and chief editor of apfanews Source: www.bangladesh-web.com)