Beyond the legal understanding : Unmasking AFSPA
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: October 21 2011 -

Jan Karwan, a rally from Srinagar to Imphal - Save Democracy - Repeal AFSPA at New Delhi on October 19 2011

The attack on the Save Sharmila campaign at Delhi University by Hindu right wing extremists or more specifically the Akhil Bharti Vishya Parishad on October 19 underlines the point that the Armed Forces Special Powers Act needs to be understood beyond the legal rhetoric.

The Supreme Court of India has already given its stamp on the legality of the said Act and there should be no arguments over this, though a fresh appeal may be permitted. The riders put down by the apex Court of the country in the form of some dos and don'ts may be understood in the context of the voices against the 'perceived' excesses committed by the security forces under the protective garb provided by this Act, but it ends here.

What happened at the campus of one of the more respected universities in the country was perhaps the start of a flash point that was just waiting to happen. For one it has unmasked the devil beneath the 'politically correct' approach adopted by the Nationalists, who come in different forms and sizes.

This approach has always rested on the premise of the security of the Nation and offering some sort of a protective gear to the defenders of the land against 'subversive forces' is a logical extension of this premise.

This is a politically correct approach in so far as Delhi tries to project its undeclared war on a group of people as some sort of an internal issue.

Secondly the very attack is a damning testimony of the growing belief that to Delhi, the North East region is an outpost, a territory that exists to ensure the security of the rest of the country no matter if in the process the very people inhabiting this region are subjected under an Act which empowers the security forces to shoot anyone to death on mere suspicion without the fear of being hauled up for crossing the line that divides duty and murdering.

It now seems that this Act now means that it offers immunity not only to the security forces but also to the zealots to whom Nationalism or love for the country may come garbed in the form of right wing Hindu extremists, who may attack anyone standing against AFSPA with impunity. The seamier side of AFSPA has certainly come of age and why not ?

Thirdly today it seems as if AFSPA has come to be the dividing line between who the State perceives as the enemies/traitors of the country and who the loyalists/Nationalists are and this is nothing short of administering a glass of Hemlock to the idea of India as a Nation.

Recalling the stories of human rights violation, the mowing down of civilians, the rape and molestation of womenfolk, cases of women being forced to give childbirth in the open, enforced disappearance and other forms of excesses may no longer serve the purpose for the fact stands that if at all these instances had the ingredients to jolt the conscience of the Government, it would have done so a long time back.

That Sharmila has been a lone ranger, fasting for over ten years is a case in point. It would be interesting to see if the Government of India and the respective Governments of the North East States can take a stand to discuss this Act at the highest political level.

Why not hold a talk at the level of the Prime Minister's office ? Yes, the Jeevan Reddy Commission was instituted at the personal intervention of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2004, but a discussion at the level of the Prime Minister with a cross section of society, the people of the region may be a concrete beginning.

Why has Delhi not given any thought to it ? Or is it shying away from admitting that AFSPA is a political tool to serve a political end ?

One explanation could be that Delhi is still under the impression that AFSPA is not a political issue and in the face of such a conviction or stand, its repeated offer to the militant outfits to come to the negotiating table rings hollow. So does its current peace talk with the NSCN (IM) and numerous other armed outfits operating in the region.

For the moment, it is there for all to see and hear that Nationalism in India means, treating the North East region as a buffer zone at the eastern gate so that the right wing Hindu extremists may sleep in peace