To fight terror, we may have to infringe on freedom: PM

Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee said today that to counter terrorism, sometimes tough decisions have to be taken which may ‘‘t...

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Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee said today that to counter terrorism, sometimes tough decisions have to be taken which may ‘‘temporarily infringe’’ on freedom and ‘‘abridge’’ human rights so that the future can be peaceful.

He criticised what he called the ‘‘non-historical’’ view that Asian civilisations were ‘‘incompatible’’ with the accepted code of human rights practices. He was speaking at the inauguration of the seventh meeting of the Asia Pacific Forum of the national human rights institutions. ‘‘There are those who think that the idea of human rights is a foreign import into the Asia-Pacific region. They, therefore, arrogate to themselves the task of lecturing to developing countries on how we should promote human rights,’’ he said. ‘‘Sometimes, this takes the form of interferences in the internal affairs of sovereign nations.’’

‘‘It can also take the form of patronizing advice on how we need to make cultural adjustments to conform to world human rights standards,’’ he said, adding that such ‘‘motivated theories’’ should be rejected. He also pointed out that there cannot be ‘‘any justification for excesses and injustice perpetrated’’ by the state machinery.

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‘‘Without accountability, agencies of the state can misuse their authority and infringe the rights of citizens, especially those who are poor and weak,’’ he said and added that democracies have an in-built system to bring the guilty to book. Citing the examples of ‘‘Jammu and Kashmir and Northern Ireland,’’ Vajpayee said, ‘‘We have to recognise the truth that the single greatest enemy of human rights today is terrorism fueled by religious extremism.’’

‘‘We have to sometimes take tough decisions—even infringing some of our freedoms and abridging some of our human rights temporarily—to firmly counter terrorism, so that our future generations can live in peace and harmony,’’ he said.

‘‘Perhaps no country in the world has suffered the depredations of international terrorism as much as India has, and for so long a time as we have. In the past two decades, nearly 60,000 people have been killed in acts of terrorism in Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir and elsewhere in our country,’’ he said.

‘‘It baffles us when the killing of innocent men, women and children is justified in some quarters as freedom struggle’’ he added. He referred to the resolutions of the United Nations which prohibited any member country to allow its territory to be used for terrorist activities in another country, through financing, training, organising, sending men and weapons for executing such attacks.

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Calling on all nations to fight terrorism, he said, ‘‘This obligation cannot be fulfilled merely by proclamations, declarations and acceptance of UN resolutions. Our actions at the national level and our cooperation at the regional and global levels, must match the threat posed by international terrorism and religious extremism.’’