"The core of all human rights and fundamental freedoms – RIGHT TO LIFE is done to death. Humanity is killed at suspicious behaviour, no rule of the Rule of Law, and Justice slaughtered – devil AFSPA reigns"
It has almost completed 50 years that the AFSPA has been in force in the region since 1958.
The irony is clear while the mainstream Indians celebrates their joyous diamond jubilee of the Independence day, the peoples of the entire region condemns, mockingly, the silver jubilee or the 50 years of brutalities suffered due to the imposition of the draconian law – the Armed Forces Special Powers Act 1958.
It is significant to trace the history of the AFSPA 1958 in the backdrop of the celebration of 60 years of Indian independence. For it was the same instrument which the colonial British deployed against India during the peak of the Indian freedom struggle in 1942.
The heightening freedom struggle of India – particularly – the Quit India movement of 1942 was suppressed by Lord Linlithgow, the then Viceroy and Governor-General of British India by promulgating the Armed Forces Special Powers Ordinance 1942.
The Indian parliament enacted the Armed Forces Special Powers Act after discussing for only 3 hours in the Lok Sabha and 4 hours in the Rajya Sabha with retrospective effect from 22nd May, 1958.
A Xeroxed copy of the 1942 colonial statute, the AFSPA 1958 bears a more draconian and terrorized version. Thus, it is crystal clear that the AFSPA 1958 is the successor of the 1942 colonial legislation and a colonial residue of the British regime.
The demoniacal colonial law had to exist in order to sustain colony, the justification of the colonial statute today, proves that the colony survives (see Sanajaoba, N. 2000).
While protesting against the law, the Deputy Speaker of the Lok Sabha on 18th Aug. 1958 stated "It pains me that we have an occassion in this house to give our assent to a martial law which was forced on us by an Ordinance… why have they (government) smuggled this legislation in this way? It is really a challenge to the concept of democracy and freedom that we have".
Earlier, only Assam and Manipur were covered by the AFSPA, however, by the 1972 Amendment of the Act whole of the north-eastern states viz. Assam, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Mizoram, Tripura and Meghalaya were brought under the ambit of the Act (except Sikkim).
Since then, without any break and judicial review, the black law has been in force in the region. The highly praised judicial activism of the Supreme Court of India failed when it upheld the constitutionality of the Act on 27th Nov. 1997 (NPMHR v UOI, AIR 1998 SC 431 at 442).
The AFSPA is the most draconian of all the black laws – the National Security Act, Panjab Security Act, etc, which are hyperactive in the region. The Central government justifies the invocation of the AFSPA to contain insurgency.
It was basically enacted to quell the Naga ethnic uprising in the then Naga Hills and Tuensang District of the then Assam. There were no organized insurgency in 1958 as it is today. Contradictorily, insurgency flourished only after the advent of the AFSPA in the region.
Many insurgent affected states blame the AFSPA for giving birth to a host of armed opposition bodies which were unknown elsewhere before the arrival of the Act. The Act has much to do with the prolonged frustration and restlessness of the peoples in the region.
To be continued....
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* The writer is a final year student of LLB from Bharati Vidyapeeth University, Pune and can be contacted at malem(dot)mangal(at)gmail(dot)com .
This article was webcasted on August 10, 2007 .
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