Modi Govt & AFSPA
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: November 25, 2014 -

Hopes of the peace loving citizens of the country particularly those of Manipur in north east India have surely been dashed with the Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh flatly ruling out possibility of repeal of the much-hated Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA).

Every right thinking citizen of the world acknowledges that AFSPA is inhumane and has no room in this modern and liberal democracy.

The so called draconian Act has become the bête-noire of the right thinking citizens of the country particularly of Manipur state for numerous reasons.

One, many innocent people have been killed, many more children have been orphaned, while a number of women have become widows under the extreme provisions of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act 1958.

Nowadays, ‘Fake Encounter’ dramas have been increasingly unleashed by the law courts, even after years of the most unfortunate and deliberate human right violations were perpetrated by the security forces in the name of AFSPA.

Although ‘dead’ is the only loser, justice has been being delivered to the victim families of late.

News of court verdicts directing the government agencies to provide monetary compensations to the families of Fake Encounter victims have frequently poured into the media.

All these show that AFSPA has long been misused, thereby leading to various human right violation incidents.

Two, Army officers and political bosses when they have retired from services are seen echoing their voices against the extreme provisions of AFSPA and its fallacy in Indian democracy.

Former Home Minister P. Chidambaram once termed AFSPA as inhumane when he said that ‘Army is not ready for a more humane law’.

Even the vice-president of India, Hamid Ansari also remarked that ‘serious complaints are frequently made about the misuse of laws like the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, the Disturbed Areas Act or the Public Safety Act.’

Three, the legendary hunger striker Irom Chanu Sharmila has been on her fast-unto-death mission demanding repeal of AFSPA for the last 14 years and her agitation has been brought to the global perspective during the last one decade.

Four, the Modi Government itself recommended for revoking the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Ordinance, 1942, as the ordinance has become obsolete.

Five, the Justice Jeevan Reddy Commission which was instituted to review the AFSPA in 2004 recommended the repeal of the Act.

The Supreme Court-appointed commission, headed by Justice Santosh Hegde, also last year noted after investigating six cases of AFSPA misuse in Manipur that the continuous use of the act evidently had little or no effect in Manipur.

Five, AFSPA removal from Manipur has been among the most articulated pre-election pledges of various political parties including the BJP.

Six, the United Nations also asked India to repeal the AFSPA saying it had no role to play in democracy.

UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions Christof Heyns earlier said at the end of his fact-finding mission, “the AFSPA allows the state to override rights in the disturbed areas in a much more intrusive way than would be the case under a state of emergency, since the right to life is in effect suspended, and this is done without the safeguards applicable to states of emergency.”

Seven, a number of civil society organizations including the Meira-Paibi groups have been urging for removal of the Act.

Even the infamous naked protest was demonstrated by women of Manipur against the imposition of the Act.

Lastly, the whole global community has supported the demand for repeal of AFSPA and for saving the life of the world famous human right activist Irom Sharmila.

At such a juncture, the very recent statement of the Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh that upheld the enforcement of AFSPA in Jammu & Kashmir and other states of India is quite irrelevant, autocratic and amounts to injustice. Defence Minister Arun Jaitley too had endorsed the same view earlier.

When the whole global community is dwelling on the fallacy of AFSA, the Narendra Modi government is still sticking to its hard-line stand on the Act.

By revealing total indifference towards the ongoing struggle against AFSPA, the Union Home Minister is provoking more and more agitations from the peace loving people of the country particularly those living in Manipur state.