'Freedom to Dissent'
(Times of India Editorial | November 21, 2006)

India seems to be taking the maxim Atithi Devo Bhava too literally. Ahead of the Chinese president's visit, the ministry has gone into overdrive to sanitise New Delhi of Tibetan protestors. First, the police ordered Friends of Tibet activist, Tenzin Tsundue, to stay put in Dharamsala until Hu Jintao returned to Beijing. Now, there are reports of the police asking Tibetan exiles to stay away from the city centre, fearing them to be a security threat. Such gagging of peaceful political protests is inappropriate. New Delhi has officially accepted China's occupation of Tibet, but it has no business to demand that all sections of the civil society should toe the line.

Certainly, Beijing wouldn't be pleased at the sight of Shame China placards in the capital during Hu's visit. That's not at all surprising since China has no claims to be a democracy. The freedom to protest is an essential sign of an open society. India rightfully claims to be one. No government in India is spared of criticism, and the Indian state, in principle, and most often in practice as well, respects the right of citizens to dissent peacefully and demonstrate against official policies. There is no need to make any exception to it even when the target of protest is a visiting head of state.

India and China do have common economic interests, but our political systems have little in common. New Delhi is one up on Beijing in having a democratic form of government, and can justifiably be proud of giving asylum to political refugees including those from Tibet. The success of the Chinese economy has prompted many to gloss over the rampant human rights violations in that country. Friends of China, like the CPM which opposes abuse of human rights by countries like the US in Iraq and Latin America, should advise Beijing on the importance of political and social freedoms.

This underbelly of China is manifest in the large number of executions in that country. Amnesty International has reported that 84 per cent of globally documented executions are carried out in China; over 18,000 people were put to death in the 1990s. Some estimates claim that the average number of judicial and extrajudicial executions between 1997 and 2001 were anywhere between 10,000 and 15,000.

With a conviction rate of 99 per cent and state-promoted fast-track justice-dispensing mechanisms like mobile execution vans, China appears to be caught in a time warp. Perhaps, Hu should take a few lessons in combining Marxist rhetoric and liberal democracy from his comrades in CPM.

In anticipation of Chinese President Hu Jintao to India, the Indian Government had served Tenzin Tsundue with an order forbidding him to leave the territorial jurisdiction of Dharamshala Town until November 25, 2006 and threatened with 'Deportation to Tibet'. The pressure on Tsundue is the result of his high profile protests during the visits of Chinese Prime Ministers Zhu Rongji and Wen Jiabao in 2002 and 2005.