Date:04/12/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/12/04/stories/2006120403201000.htm

Opinion - Editorials

Repeal the hated Act

Welcome though the Prime Minister's latest promise to amend the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) is, the devil is going to be in the details. In a public address at Imphal's historic Kangla fort on Saturday, Dr. Manmohan Singh said the Home Ministry was working on changes aimed at making the Act "more humane." He also held out the hope that the grievances of the people of Manipur would be "effectively addressed." Hidden behind this promise, of course, was a decision the Government has so far fought shy of acknowledging publicly: the Justice Jeevan Reddy committee report on AFSPA has finally been rejected. The promise of a "more humane" law governing the conduct of the armed forces in Manipur was first made by the Prime Minister two years ago. Soon thereafter, he directed the setting up of a high-level committee under the stewardship of Justice Reddy to make recommendations in this regard. The committee's members were carefully chosen to reflect, inter alia, the well-known concerns of the Army and internal security establishment. Last summer, this committee presented its report, unanimously recommending that AFSPA be scrapped. It suggested that the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act be amended to incorporate a diluted version of some of AFSPA's provisions, particularly those relating to immunity for armed forces personnel acting in the line of duty. That it has taken the Prime Minister more than a year and a half to `study' this report only to revert to his earlier prescription of `humane' amendments reflects poorly on his Government's concern for human rights and the rule of law.

What makes the Centre's lethargy even more distressing is the fact that the Manipuri people's movement against AFSPA has been a peaceful struggle. Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets following the custodial killing of Th. Manorama in 2004. When even that did not move the Centre, the Meira Paibis shamed the conscience of the country by staging a naked protest in front of the Assam Rifles. To cap it all, Irom Sharmila, a young poet from Manipur, has been on hunger strike for the past six years, surviving only because the authorities have been force-feeding her nasally. By refusing to act except in fits and starts, the United Progressive Alliance Government is unwittingly valorising the very forces of violence the Prime Minister is advising the people of Manipur to reject. The situation demands that AFSPA go lock stock and barrel, so that the non-accountability of the armed forces to the rule of law is ended and the people of the North East are invested with the same undiluted Right to Life that people elsewhere in India enjoy.