It is unfortunate that youth are often become the immediate victims
during the public protest and demonstration. Be it in the North East,
Naxal-affected areas or Jammu & Kashmir the story is indistinguishable. One
of the most recent instances (on December 23, 2005) was the brutal
killing of three students (at Kokrajhar in Assam) who are on their way to
Guwahati University's inter-college festival at Kokrajhar.
These youth
have lost their lives in the Cops (IRB of Haryana Police) firing when
some Bodo students attacked a train (Guwahati-bound Brahmaputra Mail) in
which some girls of their community have allegedly being molested by
the Cops.
Not so distant past, on September 30, 2005 nine Garo youth were
also gunned down by Central Reserve Police Force in Tura (Meghalaya)
when the Garo Students' Union (GSU) protested against the State level
committee's decision to restructure the MBoSE (Meghalaya Board of
Secondary Education) headquarter at Tura.
So is the case in December 2005,
three civilians were killed and six other seriously injured when the
security personnel resorted to indiscriminate firing to disperse a crowd who
are protesting against the construction of Khuga Dam in Churachandpur
district of Manipur.
No doubt, this is because youth represent the vigour and strength of a
society. The youth are the sources of idealism and dynamism of a
society.
They have the potential to either mould the society towards the
augmentation of all or can lead the society into retrogressive and
servitude. Youth are needed to ignite and imbibe with the ideology and
aspiration of a society. No amount of investment can make a society develop
until its youth are properly trained.
For the youth who are at the receiving end of the State forces
high-handiness again this provides an opportunity to prove their stand on Armed
Forces (Special Power) Act or AFSPA as 'license to kill' that can
trigger at the slightest altercation.
The police brutalisation of youth is
nothing but a vindication of their sentiment how AFSPA can undermine
basic human rights including right to life. Presumably, it appears that
none of the above mentioned killings are related to the Act.
However, it
is a usual tale for the local that in whatever ways killing has taken
place, the version from army personnel and state agencies usually does
not free from the tyrannical power of the Act. It may be indeed over
simplistic to rule out excessiveness when freedom to shoot is given near
complete.
Although, the present low-level armed conflicts in the North
East is not treated as 'conventional war' which occurred between two
nations, however it is not different from 'war' in regard to nature of its
impact on one's life, not to mention the huge economic lost.
The logic
of using the AFSPA by the government of India to curb insurgency is a
kind of declaration of 'internal war', assuming the area as 'disturbed
area' occupied by the enemy from within. This Act not only declared the
area/territory where there is tribal and ethnic minority movement in
North East as 'disturbed area' but also empowers the armed forces, who
are supposed to be deployed in external aggression, to use maximum force
to suppress the armed opposed groups.
The unlimited and uncounted provisions in the AFPSA in which even a
non-commission officer was given excessive power, including the power to
take life without a judicial determination of guilt, all in the name of
'the nation', it is only a matter of time before the power is abused.
The problem is not the character of the person wielding the power; it is
the power itself. This is one of the main reasons why little follow-up
action is taken, though the State government usually orders judicial
inquiries to probe the killing.
For instance, the Meghalaya government
has ordered a judicial commission of inquiry of the above mentioned
killing by a High Court judge but the probe is yet to begin. It will not be
surprising if the two cases also meet the same fate. As inquires are
delayed or have hardly completed, most victims are denied justice.
It brings forth, therefore, once again the long-standing issue of
development strategies and internal security measures in trouble-torn
regions. It is pertinent to note that development and employment generation
do not simply meant more army battalions.
The problems that confront the
youth do not happened out of vacuum but are, by and large, the
manifestation of institutionalised violence and denial of socio-economic
justice. However, it is disturbing to learn that in its recent meeting the
Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) has decided to raise more Indian
Reserve Battalions (IRB), particularly in the North East, Naxal-affected
areas and Jammu & Kashmir.
If the youth have paid the price through their
lives in demonstration against the State's anti-people stand is not
enough, this initiative is fraught with difficulties to use the local
youth to fight their own communities in the absence of addressing the core
issue.
Leaving aside the questions of merit from this sort of strategy,
more battalions will not only arrest the youth from joining the violent
path but also can generate vicious circle of hardship to the native
until the government seek to understand the people's sentiment.
If regional disparity, economic deprivation and unemployment are what
the government considered the root cause of the problems that confront
the youth, it requires concrete strategy to restore normalcy rather than
merely recruiting the youth in defense.
This calls for inclusive
approach of socio-economic development, respecting politico-historical rights
and accommodation of cultural peculiarities. The creation of more
battalions may not be altogether bad but without noble agenda for lasting
solution will kills its very goal. This sort of measure can be meaningful
if it is formed part of the package in the mutual settlement.
Otherwise, more battalions are just another form of militarisation that will add
more fuels to the existing problems. As long as the core issue remains
unresolved it can further terrorizing the common people since none can
deny the possibility of forcing the local to torture the local in the
name of law and order.
First and foremost, the youth expected to be treated them as normal
human being like their counterparts in rest of the country. The demand of
the youth is not only more employment but also a fair sense of justice
and social security.
It is the desire of the youth that their regional
identity should be protected within the larger national identity. They
aspire to look forward an environment with a sense of belongingness,
free from discrimination and considered them more than just a buffer to
protect 'national territory'.
Ironically, insurgency impedes development but process of
militarisation, lack of development (or strategical flaw in developmental
initiative) and socio-economic discrimination fuels the problem of insurgency.
What is a matter of concern is that growing discontentment with the
established system and thwarted aspirations among the youth have driven them
away from the nation building process.
To make up, we need to value the worth of youth in a right perspective for a fruitful result and to
achieve long- lasting peace.
* A. Kaisii, a Research Scholar at JNU, wrote to e-pao.net for the first time
The writer can be contacted at [email protected]
This article was webcasted on 7th May 2006.
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