Kill Us, slay us but be free: Its tipping point Nagaland collectively stands up against AFSPA

Dr Sentikumla 

‘Nagaland civilian killings: Top court cancels criminal case against Army personnel’ screamed one of the several headlines flashing in the news, reporting on the order passed by the Supreme Court of India on 17/09/2024. With State of Nagaland as one of the respondents a bench of Justice Vikram Nath and Prasanna Bhalachandra Varalein the case of Anjali Gupta vs Union of India & ors Writ Petition (Criminal) No. 265 of 2022 with Writ Petition (Criminal) No. 250 of 2022 ruled that it cannot proceed prosecution against the 30 Armed Forces in the murder of civilians in Oting based on the immunity enjoy by the Armed forces under the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (hereinafter referred as AFSPA or the Act). It is an acknowledged fact that 14 (fourteen)unarmed, innocent civilians’ lives were lost in the ‘cold-blooded murder’ perpetrated by the Armed Forces on a cold December day in 2021 in the so-called periphery of India, Mon, Nagaland.

It pains and saddens to ponder that the 14 Nagaland indigenous inhabitants’ individuals whose treasured life were snubbed out through the barrel and the bullets of the democratic sanction institutions, in place of a thriving life by now simply their bare bones remain languishing below the earth of our forefathers and their father’s remembered fondly not forgotten. It is incontrovertible they are murdered victims. Their kith and kin grief compounded by the struggle for access to justice thwarted by a polarising Act of the Central government AFSPA operating since 1958 a remnants of colonial era laws that passed constitutional legitimacy in the case of Naga Peoples Movement of, Human Rights vs. Union of India in Supreme Court judgment dated 27 November 1997. 

Nevertheless, it comforts us to be a witness to our present States dispensation along with the Advocate General and people’s determination to pursue justice for its fallen sons of the soil. We wait with optimism for a positive ruling from Supreme Court in the pending case State of Nagaland vs. Ministry of Defence & Anr filed by our State challenging the declining of sanction for prosecution of the Armed forces involved in the murders by the competent authority dated 28 February 2023.

AFSPA provisions can be perceived as an implosion of democratic norms and vesting of unfettered power to kill, to slay any humans residing in a ‘Disturbed Area’ by the Armed Forces defying democratic traditions and norms laid down. This unbalance power pattern can result in killing civilians for trivial reasons and dubbed ‘a case of mistaken identity’ as their official report suggest in Oting killings and enjoying protection explicitly under Section 6 of AFSPA that states, “No prosecution, suit or other legal proceeding shall be instituted, except with the previous sanction of the Central Government against any person in respect of anything done or purported to be done in exercise of the powers conferred by this Act.” The condition of sanction for prosecution by the Centre is debatable looking at the obvious power dynamics at play and the outcome we have witnessed recently in the case.

The quest for a just democracy in our ‘Disturbed Area’ is critical as we stare at the high probability of us being removed from this face of the earth by the individuals with the licence provided under AFSPA to kill with impunity and the killers discharge with freedom for their criminal actions. What a collective of people do in a democratic country when their existence can be threatened any moment by the people designated to be their security and take sanctuary under a draconian Act called AFSPA.

Silence is not the answer.  In a democracy we discuss, debate and dissent. It’s tipping point we Nagaland collectively erupt in chorus to release our land fully from the yoke of an unjust law and its manifestations. We need to reiterate that even people residing in the ‘Disturbed Area’ as the authority designated us, our lives matter, let firestorm of renewed dissent erupt under our resilient democratic country India from the people of our State against the unjust Act and laws. Let us have the audacity of hope to live under an AFSPA free nation protected by the Constitution and the Courts.



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