Sambhav

India has never been in peace with its border states especially Jammu and Kashmir and Eastern and North Eastern states. We are frequently made to think about the prevailing anarchy in these states and quandary surrounding the basic rights provided to the natives of these parts owing to their separatist mentality.

These Border States have been in virtual control of army since independence because the governments seem to be unable to cope with twin pressure from both outside in the form of border tension with adjacent nations and from inside with the residents who with each passing day come up with new petition or Bandh to make it even more troublesome for government to deal with the problems of basic development of these states and thus we see the living standards of people going down and brewing discontent among the larger masses.

These states have to take the help of army frequently to keep the protests down and this very way doesn’t solves the problem much but for the fact that we don’t have any other way to handle all this anger. This is evident from the fact that the separatist movement in Jammu & Kashmir that grew strong past week that it sent questions and debates reverberating all round the country.

The way the army handles these situations is never the good but thanks to the “independent” media handles this coverage makes us think that army is all good but a closer unbiased microscopic look into the regions only suggests the opposite, with army emerging as a hideous villain that seem to have lost all the consideration for the common man.

State of affairs in North Eastern States is only going to worsen if Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) is allowed to continue. AFSPA is the law which is prevailing in North Eastern states in one form or the other since 1956 to curb down naxal movement since 1958. Under this Act a non-commissioned army officer of the lowest rank has the power to shoot to kill anybody, to enter and destroy any building and to arrest anyone without a warrant. The officer needs no permission from a superior, is not answerable to anyone, and does not have to justify his action to anyone. Under this Act the affected people have no right to approach the court for redress. In effect, the Act has made the people subject to its extraordinary power second-class citizens of the country, who do not even on paper, enjoy the constitutionally guaranteed rights and freedoms supposed to be the due of every citizen.

In past months people in Manipur are trying to get national consensus on the thought of going to Supreme Court to get this brutal and anarchic law revoked but the brutalities of army just seem never ending with latest shameless act murder of local pastor Zamkholet Khongsai on 8’th July and subsequent rape and murder of 32 year old Manorama on 11’th July. The fact that should worry us more that when people finally decided to raise their voice against this latest inhuman act they were yet again handled in “Army” way as the central government gave them(Manipur government) all rights to curb the movement in whatever way they want. The demand for the repeal of the Act is an old one, and the current protests have a long history. In fact, for the past 45 months a young Manipuri woman, Irom Sharmila, has become a symbol of this struggle. Sharmila is on a fast-unto-death, demanding the withdrawal of this Act. She has been forcibly fed in hospital, under judicial custody, all this while.

We call ourselves a democratic nation but we seem to overlook the rudimentary definition of democracy which promises equal rights for all regions and people but our own democracy has put these people under virtual Martial act for five decades. Nobody can discredit Indian Army for all the great things it has done in safeguarding the nation against almost all attacks the country has faced but this act that makes army more of a plague than cure for these people and really needs to be revoked as there should be no room for such unjustifiable law which makes its citizens like refugees in their own country. Revocation of this law depends on all forms of media and especially on the television media which has to break the shackles of monotony because when it comes to army it only does the patronizing thing.

Indian Army is a great institution that has helped a long way in safeguarding the national integrity and many times has provided cover for jittery decision taking governments and nobody can deny these facts but these back spots really need to be removed. People in North Eastern states are really tired of this law and want to live free just like residents of other states and just like all other people they have high ambitions to take their state to heights of development and this law prevents them from doing all the great things that these people might be capable of and so should be revoked in all forms.     [Home]