‘Using’ child in protest: Rights panel dismisses Hooda’s reply

Chandigarh, October 16

The Haryana State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (HSCPCR) has dismissed the reply of former Chief Minister and Leader of Opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda on the issue of bringing a child to Congress MLAs’ protest on August 20 and has issued a notice to him and MLA Shakuntla Khatak again.

HSCPCR chairperson Jyoti Bainda described Hooda’s reply as “evasive and cryptic” in nature as he submitted that “I am not involved in any of the acts alleged to have been committed therein pertaining to the child”. On the other hand, Khatak submitted that just because “a child was sitting in a rickshaw it doesn’t in any manner amount to cruelty, harassment and public shaming”.

Bainda said the former CM’s two-liner response to the commission’s earlier notice “delineates insensitive attitude to the entire unwarranted action” committed by him and the Congress.

“Prima facie, it appears that you were the forerunner of the event as can be seen through the press releases. People present on the spot are saying that they were doing it under the leadership of Bhupinder Singh Hooda,” she wrote back to the LoP.

“The child was made to sit in a rickshaw by holding a placard for protest and thus was wrongfully restrained in scorching heat and that too in loud slogans shouted around him. Further, he was made to imitate a “child going to exams for cheating”. This is an outrageous act of disturbing psychology of the child,” the chairperson added.

She added that Section 75 of the Juvenile Justice Act prescribes punishment for cruelty to a child for five years and a fine up to Rs 5 lakh. “There is need for sheer contemplation at your end that a child aged 8 is quite in a nascent stage of his life and he doesn’t have sufficient maturity or understanding. In legal parlance, consent given by the child carries no value in the eyes of law...,” she added.

Bainda highlighted that the event was organised at the behest of Congress legislators and therefore, it was a political rally. She added that the NCPCR had issued guidelines that children shouldn’t be used for political campaigns.

She cautioned Hooda not to take “slipshod dispositions regarding the stated matter as the commission being a statuary body is well-equipped with the legal authority to initiate action” against him. —TNS