<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Though Nagaland became the 16th state under the Union of India in 1963, the imposition of the draconian Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act had already been imposed in 1958. The Armed Forces (Assam and Manipur) Special Powers Ordinance 1958 was promulgated by the President Dr. Rajendra Prasad on May 22, 1958. It was replaced by the Armed Forces (Assam and Manipur) Special Powers Act, 1958 on September 11, 1958.It may be noted that the AFSPA had its roots in the Armed Forces Special Powers Ordinance of 1942 which was promulgated by the British on August 15, 1942, primarily to suppress the Quit India Movement. This Act continues to be in force throughout Nagaland for a total of 63 years. In 1972, amendments to the AFSPA took away the power of the State government and its legislative Assembly to declare AFSPA and handed such powers over to an appointee of the Central Government. The AFSPA is imposed after the Disturbed Areas(Special Courts)Act 1976 is promulgated in the parts of or the entire state. The DAA grants powers to the central or state governor to make the declaration but does not describe the circumstances under which the authority would justified in making the declaration. The periodicity of the Act has been extended regularly from six months to one year. The latest extension was done by the Centre(home ministry) from June 30, 2021 till December 31,2021. The AFSPA is meant for internal security emergency where the government is unable to function as per the law. AFSPA is currently effective in entire Assam, Nagaland, Manipur (excluding Imphal Municipal Council Area), Changlang, Longding and Tirap districts of Arunachal Pradesh. The government on April 24,2018 withdrew the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) from all of Meghalaya and parts of Arunachal Pradesh as these areas have been declared free of insurgency. On the other hand, though many parts of India, especially Naxal-infested states have witnessed terrible violence, the government of India did not invoke AFSPA in those areas. This inherent contradiction in dealing with similar situations in the mainland states vis-à-vis the north east and Jammu and Kashmir also reveals how Delhi looks at the issue of maintenance of public order. There have been several cases filed against security forces for alleged gross violation of human rights. However, AFSPA provides army and operational adjuncts, such as Assam Rifles and Rashtriya Rifles, both immunity and impunity in areas that the Act is enforced- to kill at will anyone, even on the merest suspicion of breaching law and order, of being a rebel sympathizer. This writ extends to any “commissioned officer, warrant officer, non-commissioned officer or any other person of equivalent rank in the armed forces…in a disturbed area…” No army or para military personnel can be publicly prosecuted unless cleared by the central government. The AFSPA is a draconian law even though it may not be applied often. The mere power given even to an NCO to shoot at sight even to the point of causing death yet shielding such personnel from the law is inhuman. The AFSPA has been challenged in courts where the apex court had ruled that crime committed should be judged equally under the law. The Justice Jeevan Reddy Commission set up by the UPA-II to review AFSPA submitted its report on June 6,2005 in which it recommended its repeal. However, the BJP government in 2015 rejected the recommendation.It is time that such draconian colonial laws be looked from the point of whether free India is really free from its colonial hangover?<\/p>\n
Colonial hangover<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[685],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-209569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editorial"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209569"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209569\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}