On Sunday a National Conference activist was gunned down by a Village Defence Committee member in Rajouri. The killing of Ishtiyaq Ahmad has once again brought into the focus the role of Village Defence Committees in the state. If anything, the killing has yet again underlined the sense of impunity enjoyed by the VDCs who were set up in early nineties to combat militancy. But over the years, the VDCs are largely seen to have vitiated the inter-community relations in Jammu. This has often resulted in intermittent outburst of communal violence. Besides, VDC members have also been found involved in rape, loot and abductions. So far 196 cases are registered against VDC personnel in different police stations of Jammu province. Of them 67 FIRs are registered in Doda district alone. In 2013,in Kishtawar, it was the successive killing of a youth and the rape of a minor girl that led to communal riots, killing 6 people. But state government has restrained from directly implicating the VDCs for the atrocities. State government has also been deaf to the growing demands in the state for disbanding the militia. This is despite the fact that the Supreme Court in the case of Nandini Sundar and Others versus the State of Chattisgarh, has held as illegal and unconstitutional the recruitment of a section of the tribal people as ad hoc Special Police Officers and of civil vigilante militias for counterinsurgency operations.
The state government has justified the existence of VDCs as an anti-dote to militancy. Arming of the villagers was deemed necessary to safeguard them against the militants. But there is a huge religious disproportion in the composition of VDCs. Around 90-95 percent of VDCs are from one community only, something that has given them an enormous power relative to another community. But the argument that the VDCs were needed to fight militancy is no longer valid. Most of the areas in Jammu have now been declared free of the militants. And with their primary objective thus eliminated, the VDCs have no reason to be there. On the contrary there are indications that activities of VDCs in Doda, Kishtawar, Rajouri and Poonch have damaged the social fabric. But the state government has shown little mindfulness of this fallout and is persisting with this insidious arrangement, even when the conditions that occasioned the need for it no longer exist. Question can be asked if the government could disband Ikhwan in Kashmir in the nineties itself when militancy was at its peak what is stopping it from winding up VDCs when these areas are now free of any militancy related violence.
The latest killing of the political worker in Rajouri should be reason enough for the government to take measures to disband VDCs. Or the least that the government can do is to alter their role from a counter-insurgency force to one of village welfare committees. There is a need to start a debate on this pressing issue to arrive at a best possible solution to the problem which if neglected could turn the state into a communal cauldron.
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