Vice-President M. Hamid Ansari pointed out that people have a “profound disenchantment with the state” due to misuse of laws such as the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act.

He was delivering a lecture in memory of eminent jurist and human rights activist V.M. Tarkunde, here on Friday.

Mr. Ansari called for, “a fuller accountability into the system of governance at all levels so that the culture of impunity ends, and the state and its functionaries are held accountable for every act of omission or commission.”

There must be “continual oversight” to ensure that people are “kept sufficiently awake to the principle of not letting liberty be smothered by material prosperity.” The need, he said, was to find a balance between traditional rights of citizens with environmental imperatives and economic objectives or else social tensions would undermine development.

“Innovative legislation pertaining to right to food, education, information and rural employment has been put in place. A critical analysis of the results however show imbalance in implementation and insufficient attention to some other areas.”

The Vice President pointed out that violations of the right to life and liberty by the state was acute in areas of internal conflict such as Jammu and Kashmir, the north-east, and the Naxal belt.

“Much of this is credible, has been carefully documented, and reflects poorly on the state and its agents,” he said. “Despite the constitutional and legal guarantees, religious minorities continue to be the target of violence and discrimination… Patterns of systematic mobilisation of hate and divisive politics are discernible; in many cases these have been pursued with impunity.”