{"id":16723,"date":"2011-09-08T20:43:14","date_gmt":"2011-09-09T00:43:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kanglaonline.com\/?p=23345"},"modified":"2011-09-08T20:43:14","modified_gmt":"2011-09-09T00:43:14","slug":"some-suggestions-to-govt-of-india-on-afspa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.manipur.org\/news\/2011\/09\/08\/some-suggestions-to-govt-of-india-on-afspa\/","title":{"rendered":"Some Suggestions to Govt. of India on AFSPA"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script type=\"text\/javascript\">var addthis_product='wpp-252';var addthis_options=\"Google+1\"<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"http:\/\/s7.addthis.com\/js\/250\/addthis_widget.js#pubid=kanglaonline\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>By: A Bimol Akoijam<\/p>\n<p>Going by the dominant views, primarily legalistic and devoid of  political basis, on AFSPA amongst those who are protesting against the  Act in Manipur, sometimes I wonder why the Government of India keeps on  complicating the matter for themselves!?<\/p>\n<p>They could have  easily repealed AFSPA and introduce a more \u201chumane\u201d one by taking into  account some of the criticisms such as the power to shoot has been given  to the Non-Commission Officers (NCOs). Well, don\u2019t give the power to  shoot to NCOs, but give it to Commission Officers, if not JCOs! And as  for the \u201cRight to Life\u201d, repeat the same argument given by the Supreme  Court and introduce some safeguards along with Dos and Don\u2019ts of the  Supreme Court Judgment of 1997. And also, provide a rationale for the  new act, beyond the \u201cbare act\u201d of the new \u201chumane\u201d legislation; Govt. of  India must say, unlike what it did while introducing the AFSPA in 1958,  that we have \u201cterrorists\u201d who indulge in \u201cextortion\u201d and \u201cintimidate\u201d  and \u201ckill\u201d innocent people in Manipur!<\/p>\n<p>But before they  repeal AFSPA and introduce a new one as an alternative, make it sure  that the Central leaders call people, some of the major players in the  state selectively (invitation from the central leaders can instill quite  a lot of &#8220;self-worth&#8221; to people who have been complaining of being  &#8220;neglected&#8221;) and (this is important) Prime Minster must pay a visit to  Sharmila in hospital-cum-jail and give a press conference and announce  that Govt. of India has taken time to take the decision (insist in  English, one cannot take a hasty decision, and that one cannot afford to  follow \u201chou hou laobi\u201d culture or episodic response but requires a  \u201cholistic\u201d response etc.) as the AFSPA involves \u201cpolitical\u201d issues,  amongst other, issues of \u201cnational security and integrity\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Make  it sure that such an admission is followed by a statement (preferably  in soft and emotionally laden tone) that \u201cinsurgents&#8221; are our brothers  and sisters followed by an empathic remark starting with a BUT (make it  sure that this word is stressed) that Govt of India cannot remain as a  mere spectator to the suffering of the people in Manipur and\u00a0allow the  \u201cterrorists\u201d who \u201cextort\u201d and delay \u201cdevelopment\u201d to go on with their  activities against \u201cthe people\u201d of Manipur! (Note: For a cue, whoever  says this must watch Indira Gandhi\u2019s expression in an interview with BBC  at the time of crisis in the then East Pakistan, why India could not\u00a0  remain a spectator to the human sufferings in East Pakistan in the hands  of Pakistani soldiers!)<\/p>\n<p>Lastly but not the least, such  an announcement must be ended with wholesome praise for the Manipuris\u2019  contributions to the world of sports, culture (theatre, dance, cinema  etc) and announce some financial\/development package, including plans to  open KFCs and Malls!<\/p>\n<p>After that, the Govt. of India  don\u2019t have to worry about a \u201cmovement\u201d against AFSPA in Manipur and they  can be sure of the moral high ground to watch the confusion and  internal bickering amongst those protestors and people in Manipur for a  while before it subsides ultimately!<\/p>\n<p>In any case, if we go  by what the Manipuris in general have understood about AFSPA as it can  be seen from their slogans and articulations that reflect the way they  understand AFSPA after all these year, it is unlikely that they will  sense the problematic aspects of the\u00a0fundamental political premise (of  AFSPA and its would be substitute) that soon. After all, the alternative  Act will take into account their complaints on NCOs and Right to Life  etc). By that time, as such, situation would have also changed as  various historical and unfolding forces would have shaped the world  (including their own) differently.<\/p>\n<p><div class=\"wpus wpus_box wpus_box_small wpus_box_blue wpus_right\"><em class=\"wpus_quote\"><\/em><strong>Government of India must make its move; and they can expect a lovely slogan from Manipur: Jai Ho Manipur, Indian-na Yaifare!<\/strong><\/div>\n<p>Of course, this  doesn&#8217;t mean that there will not be fringe elements that will still talk  and argue against the New Act for the basic problems inherent in the  political premise of AFSPA and the new Act. But Govt. of India does not  have to worry about those fringe elements, precisely because they are  after all \u201cfringe elements\u201d. \u00a0In any case, intrigues against each other,  pulling down one another, and killing each other IS NOT a WEAKNESS for  the people of Manipur. Therefore, those fringe elements will be  effectively taken care of by the people of Manipur themselves!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Meaning, accusation of Perpetrating a Colonial Act over the people ends!!!!<\/p>\n<p>QED!<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"syndicated-attribution\">Read more \/ Original news source: <a href=\"http:\/\/kanglaonline.com\/2011\/09\/some-suggestions-to-govt-of-india-on-afspa\/\">http:\/\/kanglaonline.com\/2011\/09\/some-suggestions-to-govt-of-india-on-afspa\/<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By: A Bimol Akoijam Going by the dominant views, primarily legalistic and devoid of political basis, on AFSPA amongst those who are protesting against the Act in Manipur, sometimes I&#8230; <a href=\"http:\/\/kanglaonline.com\/2011\/09\/some-suggestions-to-govt-of-india-on-afspa\/\">Read more <span>&#187;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,4],"tags":[764,265,48,836,64,33,837,330,34,639],"class_list":["post-16723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kanglaonline","category-news","tag-anna-hazare","tag-armed-forces-special-powers-act-1958","tag-asia","tag-east-pakistan","tag-government-of-india","tag-india","tag-indira-gandhi","tag-kanglaonline-2","tag-manipur","tag-notes-from-bimol-akoijam"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.manipur.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.manipur.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.manipur.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.manipur.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.manipur.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16723"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.manipur.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16723\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16753,"href":"http:\/\/www.manipur.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16723\/revisions\/16753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.manipur.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.manipur.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.manipur.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}