Dr John Mohan Razu
The State across the globe in recent times is becoming more and more muscular and authoritarian, undemocratic and ruthless as the governments of the day unleash and impose the draconian laws against its citizens. Those who govern needs something to hold on to control its citizens especially those who show dissent, resist and defy. One such example is Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA). India became independent and is a sovereign republic, but the law of the colonizer continues till date.
The irony is that the British who colonized India used AFSPA to control those Indians who defied the imperial rule. But the same AFSPA is now being used by the Indian State against its citizens even after becoming a sovereign state. Even after its independence from the British, the Union of India continues to invoke such draconian laws as against its citizens even now. For instance, the Union of India imposed on the indigenous people of Northeast India on September, 1958. AFSPA was first promulgated on August 15, 1942, by a British viceroys and governor-general Linlithgow, under Section 72 of the Government of India Act, 1935.
Its aim was “to confer special powers upon certain officers of the armed forces”. The promulgation and imposition of such laws on the citizens of Manipur and Northeast has thus far taken the innocent lives of more than 20,000 besides incidences that stretches to rapes, arrests, torture and extra judicial executions. Under AFSPA, any crime committed by armed forces is given complete impunity. Such provisions can be called as ‘biopower’, a term coined by French scholar, philosopher, historian and social theorist who elaborates that biopower is a technology of power which can otherwise be described as ‘technology of killing’.
This was vividly demonstrated on the 4th and 5th of December, where in the Indian military ambushed 14 unarmed civilians belonging to the Konyak indigenous community in a botched-up insurgency operation in the Mon district of Nagaland. Whether the operation was a ‘mistaken identity’ or a ‘failure of intelligence’, innocent lives have been lost or whatever no words can justify such a heinous act. This incident sent shock waves across the country and once again resurrected the repeal of AFSPA.
Many political parties, human rights and civil society organizations and chief ministers and allies of BJP in the Northeast region have called the GOI for the repeal of AFSPA. Festivities came to a grinding halt and internet services were shut down. Black flags hoisted across the Northeast region and several posters with a number of captions appeared all over the Naga Hills. At this juncture we should show little caution when others pose the importance of AFSPA, however should show and explain the ways how AFSPA is being used killing innocent civilians. A number of incidences can be brought to the fore. Since 1958 In Imphal in 1984 where 14 civilians watching a volleyball match were gunned down by CRPF; the gunning down of 10 civilians in the Malom in Manipur and the RIMS massacre of 1995, where nine civilians including a medical student were killed.
What do those incidences inferor indicate? The imposition of AFSPA for the past 63 years has given armed and security forces a licence to kill – a free pass to do whatever they want. In addition to many unwanted things we have in our country including the some of the draconian laws that the British left and now being continued and used in full swing. Strangely AFSPA is still active and toxically present even in ordinary times where there is no war or internal conflicts or any dangerous situation that arise due to internal and external conditions.
It was Congress government that imposed AFSPA in the Naga Hills. BJP’s Manipur unit in its election manifesto in 2014 assured to repeal of AFSPA. After winning the state elections it has put AFSPA to backburner. Be it rape or summary killings or mistaken identity the army and para-military forces are well-protect by the draconian law known as AFSPA. An incident that comes to our memory is the rape and killing of Thangjam Manorama in 2004 in Manipur, with all protests and struggles, no security personnel has been punished till date.
This is how the Indian military and para-military forces are protected under AFSPA has given them ample protection and a license to kill whoever they want. No country in the world has such a law that is active when there is total absence of external war and internal disturbances – unique and distinct characteristics of India. It is high time that the Government of India should consider repealing of this draconian law. The time is ripe that the GOI must give heed to the voices of Northeast citizens.
The incident that took place recently is nothing but a genocide. Nagaland police filed suo motu FIR and in that said “… security forces blankly fired at the vehicle without provocation … it is obvious the intention of security forces is to murder and infure civilians.” The DGP and Nagaland commissioner in a joint report said the villagers had found the commandos trying to conceal the bodies after the initial firings. In the FIR, the Nagaland police charge the elite 21 Para-SF unit with murder and said it was kept in the dark about the operation and no locals guides were sought. This shows that the operation was definitely clandestine.
The State is becoming increasingly militarized. In the last three years we have been witnessing an array of arrests and killings taking place in diverse ways. At one-point GOI went all out super-aggressive fashion digging ditches, erecting barricades, planting spikes and by deploying police and para-military forces against the farmers. Another glaring incidence was against those students who defied CAA and the ways with which the police acted against those with all sorts of lies and false accusations. Governments at the Centre and States have now given more powers to law enforcement agencies to control the citizens – another face of the State.
Human rights violations are taking place across the world such as Julian Assuage will be extradited to the United States for having disclosed the information that the American administration was doing to countries like Iraq and others. The whistle blower of Wikileaks is undergoing all sorts of harrowing times for the past ten years for speaking the truth. The totalitarians and dictators and the so-called ‘democrats’ in order to protect and promote their powers and vested interests use brutal force to contain the voices of their citizens.
The recent episode that we as Indians witnessed in Northeast is one such happenings. Many do not come to the fore. What happened on December 4 and 5, 2021 is gruesome and thus grips all of us. Certainly, a black day for our democracy, governance and republic. Whenever innocent blood is spilled and those responsible for it should pay the price for it. Life is precious and sacred having paramount value and no one has the right to take it. When law is taken over and given to those without any moderation with blanket power, then the actions ought to be abhorred and repealed. We do not live in the law of jungle – survival of the fittest.
