Army and AFSPA

Amid the talks that the PDP was pressing BJP to consider phased withdrawal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act as a CBM to facilitate the government formation,  Army has once again  opposed any move to revoke the controversial law. Talking to reporters, General Officer Commanding- in-Chief, Western Command, Lt Gen K J Singh reiterated the old reasoning that the gains achieved by forces in  “bringing down levels of insurgency and infiltration can reverse rapidly if these are removed”.

“We have brought down the level of insurgency so we should continue this (AFSPA) to keep control of the area because there is a habit of rapidly going that to same old bad phase, so AFSPA should continue,” Gen K J Singh said.

If anything, this shows there is little scope for progress on the revocation of AFSPA in the near future, not even as a means to clear the decks for PDP-BJP coalition.  The debate over AFSPA pivots around the familiar premises: that Army needs it to conduct its operations in the state.

Army’s opposition to revocation of AFSPA seems untenable. The militancy in J&K has  steeply declined. Now the number of militants has reduced to just around hundred or thereabouts. And even they are confined to certain pockets in Valley. Districts like Srinagar, Budgam, Ganderbal, Jammu, Kathua, Doda  are without militancy. Moreover, J&K Police is fighting the bulk of the militancy. This situation hardly justifies Army’s insistence on the continuation of AFSPA? What is more Army isn’t ready even for a phased withdrawal of the law, beginning its removal, say from the Jammu and Udhampur district which have zero militancy.  

 Or if the Army thinks that AFSPA is indeed vital to fight militancy, why not support the amendment of some of the law’s provisions which offer blanket protection to the personnel responsible for the human rights violations. Or why isn’t Army itself pro-active in punishing its personnel who are prima facie involved in excesses. This would at least address some public concern over the law. So far, only in 2010 Machil fake encounter case, Army has punished its guilty personnel, awarding them death sentence.  And also in the Chattergam incident where two youth were killed by the Army.  The Army was quick to own up the responsibility and start proceedings against its own men. Such actions, however, cannot be left entirely to the discretion of the Army. There has to be an inbuilt legal mechanism to punish the erring personnel irrespective of the institutional discretion of the security and paramilitary forces.

But in Machil, Army too action against its personnel,  in Pathribal case where five innocent civilians were killed and passed off as terrorists responsible for the killing of 36 Sikhs at Chittisinghpora, Army has acquitted its personnel. This despite the fact that even CBI has termed the encounter fake and charged Army personnel for it.

Army is not interested in reducing its presence in J&K, despite the fact that a fewer militants are now on the scene. In the nineties, there were thousands and one could understand the heavy footprint of the Army. Now there is no such justification. 

While we have a reason to be perturbed about the Army’s consistent stonewalling of the AFSPA withdrawal, there is an even bigger cause for worry: that is, in matters of security or even justice to the victims of human rights abuse it is the defence establishment that is now the arbiter, not the elected government.

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