Letters to the Editor: Human rights breach in China

China is ruled by a dictator as the President of a communist regime at its head. The incumbent President Xi Jinping has legitimized to hold the top post for his whole life. Recently controversy has been raised on the violation of human rights in China by the global critics who are now mobilizing opinion against the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. Criticizing the regime or speaking against a party functionary is not permitted in an authoritarian style of functioning in China. Speaking in general, human rights breaches are suppressed in the state-controlled domestic media. That is why a few cases relating to important personalities having international image and connection sneaked into outside China through social media.

Recently two such human rights violations have come to light. Meng Hongwei, the former Interpol president disappeared in 2018. It now revealed that he was later tried and imprisoned. His wife with their twin boys is presently a political refugee in France under round-the-clock police protection. In the second case, the whereabouts of two-times grand slam doubles winner Peng Shuai was not known after she accused a senior Government figure of sexual assault. The state-run media has since released a video showing her at a restaurant in Beijing. But the Women's Tennis Association have even expressed doubt whether she is fully free of any coercion. It is in such a situation and besides, a summit of Democracy is being organized by the USA on December 9-10 reportedly to unite democratic nations against the authoritarian regimes in the world. India should actively participate in the meet to mobilize international opinion against autocratic China. Because, China is increasingly engaged in continuous hostilities on Indian borders, India should take advantage of it and mightily manoeuvre to isolate China. Yours etc;

Pannalal Dey,

Guwahati

APSC language paper

Faced with widespread anger and protests over the cabinet decision to waive a qualifying Assamese paper from Assam Civil Services (ACS) examination, the Chief Minister has clarified that the decision was taken keeping in mind the interests of Assamese students who studied in the English medium. According to him, these "aggrieved students" had filed a petition in the court seeking quashing of the qualifying Assamese paper from ACS examination which was introduced by the erstwhile BJP government of Sarbananda Sonowal vide a notification. If the subject of the notification is under legal scrutiny as disclosed by the Chief Minister, and hence sub juice. Why is the government in a hurry to withdraw the same? The government is bound to comply with court orders should the court set aside the notification.

There must be some purpose behind the issuance of the notification by the then government. Instead of defending a government decision taken by the same party, the government has now rushed to nullify the notification through a Cabinet decision. Another question that remains to be unanswered is whether the qualifying examination is for those who studied in English Medium and this qualifying Assamese paper was prescribed instead of the original official language paper for other students supposed to be also qualifying in nature. The citizens are no wiser on this. As an attempt to deflect criticism on the latest decision and to project its professed patronage for the official Assamese language, the government has announced that ACS examination can now be written in Assamese medium. Generally, all recruitment examinations in India including UPSC can be written in a recognised Indian language along with Hindi and English. Was Assam Public Service Commission not following this norm? The latest clarification from the government appears to be an afterthought and has added more confusion than clarity in the matter. There appears to be more to this subject than meets the eye.

Rajib Sarma,

Guwahati