Afspa removal: It will restore peace, dignity
The Government of India took a bold step last week in lifting the disturbed areas notification from large segments of Assam, Manipur and Nagaland. The announcement by home minister Amit Shah meant that the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (Afspa) will not be applied in 23 and half districts of Assam and a swathe of territory in Nagaland and Manipur.
The declaration of a state or part of it as disturbed, either by the Centre or the state government, operationalises Afspa. The Indian Army and paramilitary forces can be summoned under this clause to deal with conditions which the police and local administration cannot handle. Afspa arms security forces with sweeping powers, including to shoot on suspicion, and protects them from criminal prosecution.
For decades, almost automatically, every six months, either the Centre or the relevant state government would notify the extension of the Act to deal with continuing “disturbed conditions”. But last week, in a decisive action, nearly half of the area of the three states were freed of Afspa. This is nothing short of remarkable — in 1990, as many as seven of eight states of the region were under the grip of Afspa as insurgencies flared.
Hundreds of people have died on either side of this battle of arms and ideas since the Act was first used against a pro-independence movement in the then Naga hills district (later Nagaland state) of the composite state of Assam. At the heart of the Afspa debate has been the standoff between civil society groups, which raise the issue of violation of human rights, while the State asserts the need to protect national sovereignty and integrity.
These years have seen acute suffering and grief — including the killing of 13 innocent Nagas who fell victim to a botched Army ambush last December in Nagaland’s Mon district, triggering angry protests and renewed demands for the Act’s repeal. This region has also witnessed an epic 16-year hunger strike by Manipur’s Irom Sharmila demanding the Act’s repeal. A Supreme Court intervention in the case of 1,528 extra judicial killings in Manipur led to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probing 39 cases; charge sheets were filed in 29 of them. The
Act has undergone no less than three reviews — including one by the Justice Jeevan Reddy Committee, of which I was a member, in 2005-06 and now by a group of officials headed by the Registrar General of India, post the Mon killings. Last week’s announcement followed the submission of the third report.
Blunting the Act by reducing its use and the area under its control is a pragmatic way of handling a sensitive issue. Afspa may still be around, but its power is being contained.
Many civil society friends feel that this step is not enough. One needs to be pragmatic: The repeal-afspa campaign has gone on for decades. But no Union government will repeal such a law. That would be regarded as adverse to national security concerns, especially in the current geopolitical situation. The demand for the repeal will continue — as sought not just by activists, but by no less than three chief ministers, including N Biren Singh, newly elected in Manipur, and the assembly of Nagaland. But it is a political process that will take time.
In the past decades, one needs to acknowledge that changes have come slowly but surely, both in the political field and in the realm of armed conflict. Swords or their equivalent — AK-56S — may not quite have been turned into ploughshares, but public fatigue with conflict has coalesced the State’s realisation that political issues had to be resolved politically and not through the barrel of a gun, making peace efforts possible.
Although the battle with insurgency ended in Mizoram with a peace accord in 1987 with the rebel Mizo National Front (MNF), the Act was not simultaneously withdrawn. That came later and the disturbed tag was also lifted from Tripura and Meghalaya (Tripura decided to do it on its own).
Negotiations began with the largest Naga armed group, the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (I-M), nearly a quarter century ago and although there is still no comprehensive agreement, the dialogue has embraced all factions. A substantive peace has returned not just to Nagaland, but also to other states. There have been peace accords with Bodo and other groups while talks continue with a range of diverse armed factions including the United Liberation Front of Asom (Ulfa). Barring a few targeted ambushes, there has been a significant decline in the level of violence across the region. This was an appropriate time to lift Afspa from different states.
One can hardly imagine the 1990s when a sense of fear and insecurity was palpable: There were no evening or night film shows in places like Guwahati, the capital of Assam and the commercial hub of the region. This is no longer the case: Markets, businesses, transport, schools and normal activities have resumed vigorously.
A region free of Afspa and the “disturbed” label may be a worthy ideal. Nonetheless, the announcement of the reduction of the area under the law should be welcomed as a significant step to restore not just peace, but also dignity.