india

Updated: Jul 20, 2019 01:11 IST

The Lok Sabha on Friday passed a bill to expedite the process of appointment of chairperson and members of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) after the government assured steps were being taken “round-the-clock” to protect human rights.

The Protection of Human Rights (Amendment) Bill, 2019 Bill aims to make the NHRC and state human rights commissions (SHRCs) more compliant with the Paris Principle, a set of international standards which frame and guide the work of national human rights institutions. It also proposes to include the chairpersons of the National Commission for Backward Classes, the National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights and the Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities as members of the NHRC.

The amendment also provides for a reduction in the tenure of chairpersons of national and state human rights bodies to three years from five years.

Addressing the House, minister of State (home affairs) Nityanand Rai said the bill also gives more administrative and financial powers to these bodies.

The bill was passed amid a heated exchange of words in the Lok Sabha. Bharatiya Janata Party’s Satya Pal Singh said that Indian culture has stressed not on human rights but on how to be virtuous. “Our culture does not stress on human rights; we have been taught by our culture to be good men. Our scriptures say that we need to be good people, become people who are religious and good, not just people who go into places of worship,” Pal said, adding, “We have never been taught the concept of human rights.” He also dismissed the “theory of evolution” propounded by 19th century British biologist Charles Darwin.

The Opposition also hit back with Kanimozhi from Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam saying that her ancestors were Homo sapiens. “Unfortunately, my ancestors are not rishis. My ancestors are Homo sapiens, as the science says, and my parents are shudras. They were not even born of any god, or part of any god,” she said. “We are homo sapiens and the House should uphold scientific temperament.”

Opposing the bill, Trinamool Congress’ Saugata Roy said that, “Satyapal Singh is an antithesis of the Constitution”. “Article 51(A), sub-Section (h) of the Constitution says that it shall be the duty of every citizen of India to develop scientific temper, humanism and the spirit of inquiry and reform. What Satyapal ji has said is that we have not evolved from monkeys. He is denying the theory of evolution of Darwin,” Roy said.

(With PTI inputs)