This is with reference to Mr Nelson's letter 'Why bow to China' (GDN, April 23). I agree with him on his unexpressed point that the rights of human beings are sacred.

Certainly, suppressing a man's rights is an unforgivable crime. And now, since the Olympic Games are being held in China, to its ill luck its rights record is getting wide attention.

The Western media, especially, is having a field day and not letting any chance pass by when it can batter China for its abuses or even "low quality products". But what caught my attention in the letter was Mr Nelson's implicit comparison of India as a democracy and supposedly human rights defender.

I don't know how much freedom-aspiring Tibetans China may have killed, but I am sure everyone who is interested in world conflicts knows about the 70,000-plus Kashmiris India has killed.

But I don't see anyone pointing the finger at India for its rights record. There are currently more than 12 separatist movements all over India, each demanding a land of its own. If Mr Nelson and those of a similar view think Tibetans should get freedom from the "brutalities" of China, he would and should agree that the Kashmiris and the other separatists in India should also be entitled to a free land.

Seldom does the Western media or rather most of the global media mention the atrocities committed by Indian troops in Kashmir. This ranges from raping women to killing men in fake encounters, not to forget hundreds of Kashmiris who are languishing in jails and suffer daily torture.

And it is not just Kashmir. In 2002, state-sponsored riots claimed the lives of more than 2,500 Muslims in Gujarat state, but the state just sat back and watched while fundamentalist Hindus burned and raped, and set Muslim property on fire.

The legal system didn't come to their rescue. But when bombs killed Hindus in Mumbai, there was uproar and then followed a quick response, which culminated in death penalties and life sentences.

The abuse doesn't end with Muslims. Sikhs and Christians suffer the same, while there is also widespread discrimination among Hindus themselves. Towering apartheid walls embedded in religious scriptures have diminished the chances of the lower classes to live as respectable human beings.

So Mr Nelson, China may not be maintaining its rights registers well, but so is not India. Perhaps you can find a better example.

Omar bin Abdulaziz