SCHOOL OF HAPPINESS

Subject Matter in issue :

Amnesty International India launched its website ‘Halt the Hate’ in September 2015, with the aim of documenting incidents of alleged hate crimes in India after Mohammad Akhlaq, a 52 year old Muslim resident of Dadri, Uttar Pradesh was murdered on the suspicion of eating beef. It scours the English and Hindi media for reports of hate crimes, collates them on its ‘Halt the Hate’ website and classifies them on the basis of how violent were they, who were they directed at and what was the alleged motive behind the commission of such a crime.

Now the subject matter in issue here is that Amnesty International India’s interactive website, ‘Halt the Hate’ has some serious flaws both in terms of collecting data and reporting cases of hate crimes in India. Some of the noticeable flaws on the website, ‘Halt the Hate’ are as follows :

1. Omission to acknowledge Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, Sikhs as victims of Human Rights violation.
2. Selective reporting of cases of hate crimes in India based on selective media reports.
3. Omission of categories (like forced conversion) in the filter tab of the website page in the category of “Alleged motive”.

Main contention of the Petition :

The present petition is basically meant to highlight all such flaws in the website of ‘Halt the Hate’ and to bring it to the notice of Amnesty Int. India. Moreover, to question the selective approach of Amnesty Int. India in reporting cases of hate crimes in India. And to provide substantive data and facts on hate crimes committed against Hindus, Buddhist, Jains, Sikhs in India. Thereby appealing Amnesty Int. India to take serious cognizance on this issue and take prompt action to rectify the aforementioned flaws, so that impartial statistics and facts can be presented to the viewers on the subject of hate crimes in India.