Time to repeal AFSPA ...in the killing fields of Nagaland

The dozen or more coffins laid out in a row in Oting village, Nagaland as grieving widows and children, and elderly parents gather around is an image that will remain etched in our memories for some time to come. The dead were ordinary citizens going home from work. In one blinding moment, their lives were extinguished. For the Assam Rifles, Special Forces it was an intel error. How long the Government can hide behind the smokescreen of it being “classified information” is another matter. Thus far, the list of killings in Nagaland, Manipur, Assam that have been termed ‘fake encounters,’ - based on wrong intelligence - is a long one. With every encounter where the innocent are mowed down, the clamour for revocation of the draconian Armed Force Special Powers Act (AFSPA) grows ever louder. Some years ago, all the North Eastern states had come together to demand the annulment of this Act which gives complete immunity to security forces. Till today, it remains in the realm of yet another ‘demand.’ How can a country adopt a Colonial Act meant to counter the Quit India Movement of 1942, to fight its own people? How, in independent India can a country impose an Act that gives legal protection to armed forces to shoot down anyone on “suspicion” of being a terrorist, an extremist, an insurgent, asks PATRICIA MUKHIM.

On Tuesday, the lone Rajya Sabha MP from Nagaland, K G Kenye entered the well of the Rajya Sabha demanding that he be heard on the killing of civilians by security personnel. He was not allowed to speak. On Wednesday, he tried again. When he was allowed to speak, it was limited to three minutes after which his microphone was muted.

When the Nagaland People’s Party, MP, Agatha Sangma spoke up on the revocation of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) in the North East, her speech too was disrupted. Are voices of dissent not allowed to be heard?

In 1997, after Nagaland’s longest running insurgent outfit - the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (NSCN) led by Isak Swu and TH Muivah decided to begin peace talks with the Government of India after the Naga Mothers’ Association (NMA) came up with the slogan, “Shed No More Blood,” the Naga Peoples’ Movement for Human Rights (NPMHR) had approached the Supreme Court to revoke the Act.

But the apex court upheld the constitutionality of the Act and its various provisions and said that the Act is an enabling legislation that confers minimum powers for the army to operate in situations of widespread internal disorders.

Public memory is short and it’s important to jog that. Irom Sharmila of Manipur had undertaken a 16-year fast with the state insisting on keeping her alive through regular medical intervention. Irom Sharmila gave up her lonely battle in 2017 when she decided to contest the Manipur Assembly elections.

The question that came up then was why did it take over 60 years for AFSPA to become an election issue? It was only in 2016 after many PILs were filed in the Supreme Court that it sought details of 1528 cases of alleged extra judicial killings between May 1979 to May 2012 by Manipur Police and the armed forces. The CBI was asked to go into a few of those cases but in its report filed in March this year said the Agency said it had no conclusive evidence and therefore, closed the case files.

But the questions that has not been asked is why are the North Eastern states of India and Jammu and Kashmir singled out for imposition of AFSPA? Aren’t there internal rebellions in the rest of India too, such as “Left Wing Extremism?”

So why are those areas not termed “Disturbed Areas” followed by the invocation of AFSPA?

The reality is that the North East is not only less understood by distant Delhi but is also still considered ‘alien’ to the nation because of racial and cultural dissimilarities.

Nation-building in the region is work in progress and insurgency is the result of one colonial power – the British - being replaced by another one that people in Nagaland still term as India.

The younger generation aspire to move on and find their space in this nation but sadly the elements of inclusiveness and emotional bonding with the margins still bedevil this land.

At this juncture when the outrage is alive, many are wondering if the so-called peace talks between the NSCN(IM)and the Government of India that were reinforced through the Framework Agreement of 2015 is still viable.

The media has focussed exclusively on the NSCN (IM) to the exclusion of other Naga National Political Groups (NNPGs) who have been brought on board because they are Nagaland-based and speak exclusively for Nagaland whereas the NSCN(IM) as we know is led by Tangkhul Naga from Manipur and the majority of its cadres ar