Evading a direct poser on AFSPA : The failure to inspire continues
- Sangai Express Editorial :: February 28, 2014 -

Women folk staged a protest in front of historic Kangla against imposition of AFSPA on Jan 25 2014 :: Pix - Deepak Oinam / Ranabir Pao

Mr Arnab Goswami, the man from Times Now was magnanimous enough in stating that Rahul Gandhi has his heart in the right place, after the not so young Gandhi scion had given his first ever TV interview some time back, an interview which some have interpreted as scoring an own goal.

The Sangai Express cannot be as magnanimous as Mr Goswami, for in side stepping a direct question on the continued imposition of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act in the North East region, from a young Manipuri girl at Guwahati on February 26, he has demonstrated that he has no heart at all, much less have his heart in the right place.

More than this, he also contradicted himself, if his quoted words are anything to go by. “You cannot solve problems without discussing them and by using force against these people. They must have the power to do what they want to chart out their own destiny and fulfil their dreams. So more power to youngsters and the people.”

This is the vice president of the All India Congress Committee stating that the problems besieging the State (read the armed insurrection), cannot be resolved by use of force and this is right.

But then what is the Armed Forces Special Powers Act all about ? Is it a welfare scheme ?

Thanks to sustained campaigns launched by a number of human rights activists, with Irom Sharmila right there as the inspirational figure, no one is today so naive as to believe in such double speak.

A double speak exposed so succinctly in evading a direct question on the Armed Forces Special Powers Act but yet at the same time stating that the problems cannot be resolved through use of force.

The Armed Forces Special Powers Act is not just an Act to contain militancy and help the civil administration to maintain law and order but is also an Act which gives unbridled powers to the security forces to use force against the civilians.

The instances of the excesses committed by the men in uniform under this Act would run into reams of paper.

Perhaps Rahul Gandhi was too much of a baccha in 2004, when the Prime Minister himself admitted the need for a more humane law, to realise the socio-politico implications behind the continued imposition of the Army Act, which is a piece of legislation adopted from the British Empire, when they lorded over India.

Narendra Modi too kept silent on the said Act when he addressed one of the biggest election rallies ever seen in Manipur on February 8 at the ground of Langjing Achouba.

Two sides of the same coin, when it comes to AFSPA, though the State unit of the BJP may cry hoarse that it is for the repeal of the Army Act from Manipur.

Evading a direct reply on AFSPA may not have much of a bearing in the outcome of the election in Manipur, for remember it was only the Congress party which did not touch this in its manifesto in the election to the 10th Assembly in 2012 but went on to win an unprecedented 42 seats in the House of 60.

A failure to take AFSPA from the street protests, seminars and discussions to the realm of electoral politics and herein lies the disconnect between the people’s aspiration and Government formation.

By evading a direct reply to the question on AFSPA, Rahul Gandhi may be sticking to the lines of mainstream politics and playing it safe, but in doing so he has exposed himself as a man without a vision for the North East.

AFSPA is not only an Army Act which empowers the security forces to open fire on suspicion even to the extent of causing death, but is today increasingly seen as a discriminatory Act, an Act which says that the North East region is nothing much more than a political map, an outpost, a territory of India but where the people are and can be treated as lesser citizens.

In failing to realise that the issues of North East go much beyond development as understood through roads, bridges, power and infrastructure, Rahul Gandhi has failed to inspire and this is not overstating anything.