Black law on its way out

What prime minister Narendra Modi had said on April 28 during his visit to Assam has far reaching implications on the people livening in the north east. In his address to a mammoth crowd at Diphu on April 28, the prime minister said efforts were on to improve the law-and-order situation for the controversial Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act of 1958 to be completely lifted from the northeast. According to the annual report of the Ministry of Home Affairs, incidents of insurgency in the north eastern states reduced by 80 per cent in the past eight years; casualties of security forces fell by 75 per cent and civilian deaths went down by 99 per cent. These figures show that sustained peace has been achieved in the region and there is no longer any need for a draconian law that has received far more brickbats than bouquets over the decades. The lifting of the controversial AFSPA has been ventilated across the region and by various national and international human rights organisations. It may be recalled that a month back, the Centre had announced a reduction in the number of ‘disturbed areas’ under AFSPA in Assam, Nagaland and Manipur. AFSPA guarantees sweeping powers to security forces involved in anti-insurgency operations. According to the Centre’s new notification, from April 1 until next six months, AFSPA would remain in force in parts of Assam, Nagaland, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh, as well as the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir. Tripura and Meghalaya had removed AFSPA in 2015 and 2018, respectively. In the north east, people across the region took out massive protests against the massacre at Oting and Mon in Nagaland on December 4 and 5 and have demanded that the Act be revoked. The BJP, which governs Assam, Manipur and Arunachal and is an ally of the ruling coalition in Nagaland, seems to have taken a serious note of the December 4 incident in Nagaland’s Oting (Mon district). In a 114-page report released in 2013, a Supreme Court panel led by Justice Santosh Hegde concluded that AFSPA “failed to confront insurgency and that the military forces were engaging in egregious human rights abuses by functioning behind the protection of the constitutional provision”. In 2016, the Supreme Court had made it clear that the Act did not provide blanket immunity to Army personnel during anti-insurgency operations, but the transgressions continued despite the strictures. The five-member Jeevan Reddy panel, appointed by the government in 2004 to assess the contents of the AFSPA in India’s northeastern states, suggested legislation to repeal in its totality. Now that the situation in the region has improved and in the face of massive protests and PILs for repeal and removal of the Act, the government has decided to prove to the people that it is willing to walk the talk and making tough calls. With crucial assembly elections in the region in 2023 followed by the Lok Sabha election in 2024, the Narendra Modi government understands political dividends from a good sense of timing. AFSPA was promulgated in most states in the region since the late 50s starting with Nagaland, when insurgency was at its height. It is hoped that a new chapter will begin in the north east for speedy development without disruptions once AFSPA becomes a thing of the past.