AFSPA: Chained in Chain Reaction

Sharmila’s quest for the removal of the draconian Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958, from Manipur and other parts of the North East states got a jolt with the massacre of innocent Hindi speaking migrants in Asom by the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA). Unfortunately, the unwanted incident in Assam has, once again, muddled the image of the North East as well as the civil society organisations movement for the repeal of AFSPA from the region. It has justified the “mainstream” understanding of the region as a “disturbed zone”, even when that understanding has to be questioned. The understanding seems to attain more justification when the victims are “Hindi speaking people”. I wonder what the government, media as well as the diverse civil society would response and react if the victims were non-Hindi speaking people. Well, the killings of innocent non-Hindi speaking people at the hands of armed state actors as well as armed non-state actors, in the North East, always go unnoticed when such serious cases really deserved equal concern and attention. Unfortunately, they always got wrapped under the blanket of “disturbed zone” and AFSPA. The attitude ought to raise serious questions, which are otherwise neglected or untouched. Any democratic interest should never compartmentalise issues or questions on the lines of touchable or untouchable. The state ought to open itself to confront, discuss and negotiate issues where its actors, armed as well as unarmed, create a hindrance to the people it represents.

When the region sits on the mapped “disturbed zone”, the recent ULFA’s inhumane act has its immediate spillover effect in other parts of the North East states. The prospect of the much debated and controversial AFSPA seems to be decided once and for all again. When the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, after his visit to Imphal, was mulling over the future of AFSPA to rub its teeth and claws so as to prepare for a more humane AFSPA, the draconian Act, however, will continue with its “special powers” after the ULFA massacre. Even after acknowledging its inhumane nature and character, the Act will be allowed to operate with all its “Special Powers” again. The disturbing thing is that the Act has become an accepted rule for the region and not just an exception. In every manner, when the deployment of armed forces or para-military forces of the Union to restore public order, peace and security in any part of the country ought to be an exception, the continuous strengthening of armed forces in the region, which has been going on for decades, is an indication that the problems of the region deserve more than a military solution. The recommendation outcome from the report of the Justice (Retd) BP Jeevan Reddy Committee will be awaiting a “kind consideration” again.

In the case of Assam, the Government of India declared the state as a “disturbed area” under the AFSPA on 27-11-1990. The authorities felt the need to resort to the use of armed forces in aid of civil power in the face of the threats from the ULFA. The areas falling within 20 km of wide belt in the State of Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Meghalaya along the border of the State of Assam was also declared as “disturbed areas” on 17-09-2001. Since 20-08-1997, the Government of India has been reviewing the extension of the Act after every six months. On 04-11-2004, the Act was extended for a period of six months till 03-05-2005. However, the Act continues to operate as the state found itself under “tremendous strain”, which was pressured by the ULFA and NDFB then. Dr BK Gohain, Commissioner and Secretary to the Government of Assam, Home and Political Department, in his letter to the Secretary to the Committee to review the AFSPA wrote on February 11, 2005: “ … the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 remains a critical requirement for augmenting counter-insurgency operations under the ‘Unified Command’ grid to meet its objective of combating militancy by increasing the pressure on militant outfits with a view to veer them around the mainstream.”

Defence Minister AK Antony recently ruled out the repeal of AFSPA in the wake of the ULFA massacre of Hindi speaking migrants. This has again authorised the Army to celebrate as they prepare themselves for an environment of more frequent sub- conventional warfare and for longer periods. As Assam gets set for an “all out operation” against ULFA, Army Chief JJ Singh has in his mind a multi-pronged counter-insurgency military operation and not purely a military approach. JJ Singh was right when he said, “The problem in Assam has social and economic dimensions…” The same implies to the AFSPA mapped region beyond Assam that still awaits revolutions from white to green even after more than 50 years of the nation’s independence. The much talked about “humane face” should be addressed at such time. The face and image of independence, freedom and liberty are yet to show itself to the populace who are living with all sorts of exemptions and expectations. The region seems to be attracting more heads and minds of the defence specialists than that of the economic or educational specialists.

The celebration about India’s economic triumph and the endless talk about India as the emerging global economic power have not even reached the region. Welfare and development approach of the government has been that of an exclusive one, which restrains the region from any relative celebration. The North East is a real picture of the Other India where welfare, development, security, governance, democracy and all the other big words still have to find a space for itself.

Who is responsible?
As the mayhem has also stirred alive political parties to lift the political leverage for their share of the vote banks, the unusual blame game takes its own turn. The blame game, however, will never lead to clue the desired solution. This has once again made it obvious that the government failed as it indulged in the blame game. If the political parties did not blame one another, the finger will, without any hesitation, point to outside actors like ISI, Bangladesh and Pakistan. Of course, we should not rule out the probabilities, but the problem is homegrown and the solution has to grow from within. The observation of the Administrative Reforms Commission (ARC) deserves special attention when it said that the reason behind the ongoing unrest in the North Eastern states resulted out of the failure of the governments. ARC chairman, Veerappa Moily said, “The main cause of the conflict in the region is the failure of the Government to initiate dialogues and discussions on issues confronting society. There is no problem in constitutional and legal aspects of the country, but the problem is the failure on the part of the Government to understand the ground realities in the region.” The Commission members also said that the laws enacted by New Delhi were not in line with the ground realities in the North Eastern states. Moily was right when he said, “We cannot afford to look into these conflicts at a micro level.” That is when the need to look into the social and economic dimension becomes needful. The talk about India as one of the emerging global economic powers should have a meaning to the region that is alive with resources, human as well as natural. Focussing on a military strategy alone to curb the decades old problems would fail to identify and uproot the real problem.

On the other hand, we continue to hear the accusation of people like Mamoni Goswami about the “insincere” attitude and approach of the Government towards the ULFA in the appointed dialogues even when India extends its arms wide open. The language of ULFA’s inhumane killings was also interpreted and read along the line of that Government’s attitude. Even if the ULFA, on their part, resorted to deliver their message by hit and run violent method, they cannot finally deliver themselves without any dialogue. Similarly, the Government of India should realise that the solution could be realise by welcoming a sincere dialogue and not merely smoking them out through an all out military operation. A bad decision has been putting the innocent civil society at the worst position whereby they have to stand defenceless to negotiate the faceless enemies. The spillover eventually trickled down to gnaw the freedom and security of the civil society.

The need of the hour is to make a digressive move from out-of-the-box thinking. As militarisation gets strengthened in the region with the unfolding of the New Year, the government also ought to immediately put into war-footing effect a well-designed and crafted educational, economic, and administrative policy to touch that still untouched “social and economic dimensions”. It would heal all if we could wake up to realise that they are not untouchables. Peace first approach will not work out if only the armed state actors are involved. The all-out operation should also be equipped with equally “ignited minds” to impact the “social and economic dimensions”. Only then, the “humane touch” would be realised peacefully. Until then, the spiral would continue to limit any understanding and policies behind the veil of “disturbed zone” and AFSPA. What a botch.