Observers and experts like Henri Tiphagne, national secretary of the Human Rights Defenders’ Alert–India, express concern over the “politicisation” of the commission and its proactive selectiveness in some states, while ignoring crisis situations in others.

The point is they don’t feel for human rights, they don’t feel for victims of human rights, they don’t feel for the lives of those people -Henri Tiphagne, national secretary, Human Rights Defenders’ Alert – India

 Tiphagne contrasted the NHRC’s quick response to this year’s panchayat election-related violence in West Bengal with its delayed action to the ongoing ethnic conflict in Manipur.

“I don’t say you should not, but if the only rush is to West Bengal, where did that speed go in the issue of Manipur?” he asks.

Despite communal riots having flared up in Manipur since 3 May this year, the NHRC issued its first statement only on 20 July, after a video of two women being paraded naked by a mob went viral.

“The point is they don’t feel for human rights, they don’t feel for victims of human rights, they don’t feel for the lives of those people,” says Tiphagne, who is also national secretary of the All-India Network of NGOs and Individuals Working with the National and State Human Rights Institutions (AiNNI).