Human rights are the most sacrosanct of the tenets of this world. In a way human rights is what the UNO is all about. That is also what the democracy and liberties ultimately aim at - to allow the humans to be free, to be respected as human beings and to remove every impediment in that freedom. As such human rights take precedence over most of the things. Except for the considerations of decency and morality, sovereignty and integrity of nations, the doctrine of human rights accepts few modifications in its breadth and sweep. That these sacrosanct principles should become a handmaid of terrorism itself is the most shocking travesty one may encounter. Of all the offending crimes committed by the terrorists this is the most unforgivable one. For it would not only degrade the purest of principles humans have so far devised but would also shake the human belief in the ultimate goodness of man. If a terrorist thinks nothing of perverting the most sacred right where would he stop at? Nothing, for sure.
Yet that is what the terrorist have been doing without compunction. As the investigations into the attack on Parliament, or 12/13 as it is being codified now, deepen it shows that the prime conspirators have been amongst the flashiest of the 'rights' activists. That the primarily accused university lecturer should have not only have been in good contact with the center's interlocutor on Kashmir, but should have been arranging meeting of other 'activists' with K C Pant, shows on one hand the spread of terrorist tentacles and the total subversion of the most haloed principles on the other. The security and other agencies engaged in combating terrorism have often been thwarted by the considerations of the rights violations. Indeed, right's violations is what have been the most easy instrument used to beat the police and security agencies away from their targets. They have been used to malign the security forces and even the other well-meaning citizenry. Terror has been used to get the enforcement agencies besmeared with the violations of most grievous nature, while the public opinion that is easily supportive of very voice crying against the violation of human rights unsuspectingly lends its weight and support to such campaigns.
There is a very thin line dividing the law and right. As it is the concern with protection of rights seriously limits the space within which the law enforcement agencies work. Often the law enforcer is on the brink of what is legal and allowed and what would be a violation of rights. Upon that fine line depends not only the security of nations but also the protection of the very rights - human rights - of the whole people. The 'human rights' of a terrorist is a contradiction that is not easily appreciated. Often the democratic space ends up giving the terrorists a free sanctuary. When the terrorist usurps the human rights to use as a tactic or weapon or even a cover, it becomes an inhuman right that must not be allowed in any case. That human rights have been so abused must be an eye-opener to the people in general and the various rights activists in particular, cautioning them not to jump to easy conclusions and to be wary of every claim of the violations of rights especially in terrorist infested area. Nobody must be allowed to claim a right to be inhuman.
Published in http://www.kashmir.co.uk/
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