The Centre’s decision to lift the Armed Forces Special Powers Act from Meghalaya and parts of Arunachal Pradesh was long overdue. Except for the Changlang district in Arunachal Pradesh where the National Socialist Council of Nagalim-Khaplang is intermittently active, most parts of the state are free of any insurgent activity. Meghalaya has been one of the most peaceful states in the Northeast for many years and the AFSPA’s continuation was wholly unjustifiable.
The entire region, in fact, is slowly turning into a haven of peace. Data released by the Ministry of Home Affairs tells the story: from 1,963 insurgency incidents in 2000, the number fell to 308 in 2017. Civilian deaths have dropped from 907 to 37 in the same period, a drop of 96 per cent. This should prompt the Centre to consider if the Act is needed at all in the region. Except parts of Manipur, almost all of the Northeast today is free of insurgency.
According to South Asia Terrorism Portal, a well-respected website on terror and low-intensity warfare in South Asia, while Tripura and Mizoram did not witness any incident of violence last year, in Nagaland, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya it was negligible. Another compelling reason to lift the AFSPA, if not repealing it altogether, is the misuse of the law. The Army and paramilitary forces which benefit from the Act have on a number of occasions been accused of unlawfully misusing its provisions not only against innocent people but even against the civil authorities.
Justice D M Sen, a retired judge of the Gauhati High Court, who had probed an incident of Army firing in Kohima in 1995 that killed at least seven civilians, had indicted the Army for obstructing the civil administration from performing its duties. The Army has to aid the civil power, not supercede it. Justice B P Jeevan Reddy submitted a report on the AFSPA over a decade ago but it is yet to see the light of the day. It is time take to a call on this draconian Act for there is no place for a military dictatorship-type law in a country that calls itself the world’s largest democracy.