The Menace of Overt Military Occupation in Northeast India
- Part 1 -

Kapil Arambam *

Kishalay Bhattacharjee's Blood on My Hands: Confessions of Staged Encounters - Book Cover

Kishalay Bhattacharjee's Blood on My Hands: Confessions of Staged Encounters explains how the protectors can become predators - all for the sake of greed and ridiculous conformity

Blood on My Hands: Confessions of Staged Encounters
by KISHALAY BHATTACHARJEE
Publisher: Harper Collins India
Publication date: 23 September 2015
ISBN-10: 9351772586 | -13: 978-9351772583
Language: English

Prologue

Around twelve years ago it was during the Yaosang festival. One of my friends, Khundrakpam Tejkumar, who we used to fondly call Gundruba from Uripok Laikhurembi, was among the volunteers organizing the local Yaosang sports. On that fateful day, he was picked up by the Assam Rifles. His lifeless body was recovered the next day. An official report mentioned that he was a hardcore member of a rebel outfit and that he was killed in an encounter.

In 2009, five years after the incident, the Imphal bench of the Gauhati High Court found that not only Gundruba was innocent but also that the 19 Assam Rifles stationed at Yaingangpokpi post had tortured and killed him in their custody. The court had as well directed the respondents, the Union of India and Assam Rifles to pay a compensation of 400,000 INR to the petitioner, Khundrakpam Binashakhi, Gundruba's mother. Nobody knows what had happened to those gunmen, who had committed the crime.

Once our lives seem to have some values but those are all gone and now apparently there is a price too. Four hundred thousand for a human life?! It is outrageous. However, it makes a bit of sense if we see that the Indian army, as a whole, has its origin as soldiers of a medieval multinational corporation called the East India Company. At times it is hard not to be emotional though it helps little in the people's resistance against the shameless and authoritative establishment. Nobody knows what the security agencies are up to in the Northeast but sometimes standing back is not an option.

In his book Blood on My Hands, Kishalay Bhattacharjee, a seasoned newsman, has laid it bare that our resistance against the establishment is not without reasons and that the army is spreading shit - scattering it all around - in the name of nation, patriotism, counter-insurgency operations and what not.

The Onslaught of Military Democracy

A new term has emerged in a corner of an Indian hinterland popularly known as the Northeast. It is 'military democracy'. While India self-styles itself as the largest democracy in the world, the army and police in particular and the security establishment in general, are running amok like a mad dog in this region. The insanity is most obvious in the number of fake encounters and murders. More than 1,500 people have been killed in the last three decades in Manipur alone. The army is a disgrace to our existence. This book has proven succinctly that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely and that protectors can transform into predators unabashedly.

Blood on My Hands - Mr Bhattacharjee's second book after Che in Paona Bazaar: Tales of Exile and Belonging from India's North-East - is a narrative non-fictional accounts and confessions, from those who are 'inside' the system.

The army is involved in, in addition to fake encounters, smuggling of any conceivable items ranging from guns to drugs and is in cahoots with all kinds of criminals. What for? There is just one rationale behind these crimes: get promotion or get an award with a little help from impunity that they enjoy from black laws that have been imposed in the region. Take the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act for instance, which privileges any army personnel to rape and murder a person on mere suspicions. Or in other cases, the reason for committing the crimes is the chance to loot as much as possible because nobody is accountable.

One of the anonymous army men, in the book, justifies it by confessing that it is just how the things work; that it is the system; that it is a mere standard operating procedure; that an individual has to be in the system or be an outcast that could have a direct consequence on his/her career. The gunman does admit: 'the politics of chakras is the dirtiest game' and 'anything outside the norm is suspicious'.

In Manipur, there was a GOC who found he was lagging behind by two kills. He and I know this for a fact: he called up his juniors, telling them to get him three kills. That night, three persons were killed. (p. 92)

The felonies are not confined to the Northeast but rather it extends all the way to Kashmir.

Muslim men from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh are abducted from Jammu, kept in the post for two or three months, and once (these) weapons are purchased, they are killed and shown as militants trying to infiltrate with weapons. The CO gets a thumping report and the unit gets a citation…Their looks and dress are not like those of the militants from Pakistan. But who gives a flying fuck for all these details? (p. 91)

This book is against the atrocities committed by the police, army, paramilitary forces, the Intelligence Bureau and the Research & Analysis Wing. All of them are responsible for extrajudicial killings, staged encounters, extortion cases, smuggling, corruption, running mafias, raising illegal militia and the list is endless. The author might have as well tickled the bottoms of many officials who are in these departments and agencies; albeit it is uncertain whether they would even read this book because they are usually occupied in serving the nation.

To be continued...