Army Act versus sanctity of life : Heat over AFSPA debate
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: November 17, 2014 -

Ideally there should be no debate.

It is simple for it empowers the security forces to open fire, even to the extent of causing death on mere suspicion under the Armed Forces Special Powers Act.

But the fact is the Act is valid and legal, as per the ruling of the Supreme Court many years back and hence the debate.

The very fact that there is indeed a debate over the Act should be enough indication that there are two schools of thought.

One is the thought that there is nothing illegal or wrong with the enforcement of this Act and the other is there is nothing to justify the imposition of the said Act, where innocent people or even guilty ones can be tortured and killed summarily.

The former train of thought is obviously and loudly espoused by the army and all those who identify themselves with the thinking of the men in uniform and the latter belongs to the people, the liberal people who believe that no one should be given the license to kill.

The Act is on and the debate still rages.

Not for nothing that it took former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh to fly down to Imphal and announce the institution of the Justice Jeevan Reddy Committee to study the finer aspects of the said Act and see what can be done.

Repeal the Armed Forces Special Powers Act is the one line demand that has kept Irom Sharmila fasting for over 14 years now.

Surely there must be a reason why security forces open fire and kill so many innocent civilians in the name of maintaining law and order in the State.

The RIMS massacre, Tonsen Lamkhai killings, Malom massacre, the killing of Thangjam Manorama are some of the ugly examples of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act. There are numerous other examples, too lengthy to be quoted here.

The debate over the Armed Forces Special Powers Act is not something new, but it is interesting to note the manner in which it has been catapulted into the limelight in the last couple of days.

On the same day that the report of the Judicial Inquiry constituted to probe the details of the killing of Th Manorama was submitted to the Supreme Court came the news of former Finance Minister P Chidambaram stating that the Armed Forces Special Powers Act should have no place in a democracy.

Not surprisingly the comment of the former Union Minister did not go down well with a Minister of State, General (Retired) VK Singh, who went to the extent of stating that the said Act does not give ‘unlimited powers’ to the security personnel.

The comments of the two personalities came after the Army Court convicted five army personnel in the Machil fake encounter case way back in 2010.

VK Singh justified his statement in the backdrop of the fact that the Army Court did move fast and convicted the five erring army personnel for the said case.

Not surprising that this observation should come from a man with an army background, but just as one or two or three swallow does not make a Summer, conviction in one case does not take blunt the harshness of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act.