{"id":17477,"date":"2011-09-16T21:30:29","date_gmt":"2011-09-17T01:30:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kanglaonline.com\/?p=23676"},"modified":"2011-09-16T21:30:29","modified_gmt":"2011-09-17T01:30:29","slug":"ten-issuesquestions-to-understand-the-significance-of-the-political-premise-of-afspa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.manipur.org\/news\/2011\/09\/16\/ten-issuesquestions-to-understand-the-significance-of-the-political-premise-of-afspa\/","title":{"rendered":"TEN ISSUES\/QUESTIONS TO UNDERSTAND THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE POLITICAL PREMISE OF AFSPA"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><!-- AddThis Button Begin --><br \/>\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\">var addthis_product = 'wpp-252';\nvar 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>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>To insist that one must address and understand \u201cPolitical Premise\u201d of  AFSPA is to insist that we must fundamentally know\/address the  following issues:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>\u201cLaw\u201d is a juridico-political fact, thereby  meaning it has a political premise and that must be addressed (more so  with Acts like AFSPA).<\/li>\n<li>Even if the protestors prefer to de-link  the political premise of AFSPA, will the Government of India, with which  the protestors are engaging with in order to repeal the Act, de-link  what it thinks the Act is addressing while thinking about AFSPA?<\/li>\n<li>All  legislations are to address some realities\/phenomena in our real world.  Acts on dowry, sati, child-marriage, for that matter the recent talk of  Lok Pal, all are (about) legislations to address or fight realities of  our life (the menace of dowry, sati, child-marriage or corruption).  Therefore, the discussions or debates on these legislations are not  carried out by de-linking these realities.<\/li>\n<li>What is that AFSPA is  fundamentally seeking to address? (Isn\u2019t this a question of  policy\/approach and politics that informed the policy\/approach, a  question that is inherently implicated and critical in understanding  AFSPA?)<\/li>\n<li>AFSPA is supposed to address the \u201cdisturbed condition\u201d caused by \u201carmed rebellion\u201d (\u201ckhutlaipaiba lalhouba\u201d).<\/li>\n<li>Aren&#8217;t  the powers given in the Act related to \u201carmed rebellion\u201d, powers  (actvities) that are to be exercised\/performed by the military  personnel?<\/li>\n<li>Why is it then that the Supreme Court says the  \u201cdisturbed condition\u201d wherein AFSPA has been enforced is not due to  \u201carmed rebellion\u201d? (Is this a \u201clegal\u201d or \u201cpolitical\u201d question?)<\/li>\n<li>If  it is about &#8220;law and order&#8221;, are those powers noted in the Act in line  with what is expected of a \u201claw and order\u201d enforcing mechanism or  engaging in \u201cwar\u201d, including those that can be described as \u201clow  intensity\u201d ones?<\/li>\n<li>More crucially, if the Act is not addressing a  \u201cdisturbed condition\u201d caused by \u201carmed rebellion\u201d (khutlapaiba  lalhouba), and it is about &#8220;law and order&#8221;, why does the Government of  India outlawed those rebels groups or charged the members of these  groups in Court saying that they are \u201cwaging war\u201d against the State?<\/li>\n<li>Are  these questions matters of &#8220;theory&#8221; or (as many have a habit of saying  often as a way of debunking or refusing any attempt at deepening  understanding on an issue) \u201cground reality\u201d or both?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>To those who are protesting against the AFSPA:<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>(a) <strong>Narratives  of human tragedy, of near and dear ones having been tortured, detained,  killed or made disappeared by the state agencies under the Act, are  facts. But are these narratives of human tragedies un-related to the  above questions\/issues?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>(b) <strong>But when  somebody (or in \u201cwe the people\u201d kind of programme in TV channels) brings  out similar narratives of human tragedies in the hands of non-state  actors, does the issue of AFSPA get diluted or distracted precisely  because your fight is based on a limited or narrow legal\/human rights  perspective that does not address basic questions pertaining to the Act  as I have noted here (as well as elsewhere)?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>(c)  How do you intend to make the issue of AFSPA politically significant  (amongst others, keep the question\/issue no. 2 above in mind as well)  when your own politicians and middle class can probably sense the human  tragedy and say it\u2019s bad but insurgents also do the same and so on.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>(d) <strong>Granted  that, one may agree or disagree with those who are \u201cwaging a war\u201d  against the Indian State, but the fact is, IT IS THERE as A PART OF OUR  REALITY. So, which one makes more sense: Address something that has been  there for decades and something that affects our lives with an honest  acknowledgment of the reality of \u201crebellion\u201d and realistically approach  the issue or continue to deny or distort the reality<\/strong> (which,  while the AFSPA is ostensibly dealing with a phenomenon of &#8220;waging war&#8221;  against the State with arms&#8211;in short, &#8220;armed rebellion&#8221; at the same  time legally\/juridically denying it, as in Supreme Court Judgment of  1997) <strong>OR allow one to be guided by a mob mentality or lynching  mindset saying that these \u201cextortionists\u201d blah blah must be &#8220;eliminated&#8221;  (something that the mighty Indian State has been trying for more than  50 years with its military might under a &#8220;legal fiction&#8221; all this while  without success and only to be admitted now and then that we must find a  &#8220;political solution&#8221;!)?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Lastly, HOLLOW promise  of a \u201cyes, yes, AFSPA must go\u201d by your politicians or those who feel the  human tragedies under the violence of the Act but have a nagging  question \u201cwhat after AFSPA?\u201d for there are these &#8220;naharols&#8221; (or  insurgents), can never be addressed (or rather exposed) until and unless  one brings in the above TEN questions\/issues into the struggle against  this notorious \u201clegal fiction\u201d that has created havoc in our life.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"wpus wpus_box wpus_box_ wpus_box_orange wpus_\"><em class=\"wpus_quote\"><\/em> These are some of the concerns that I have in mind when I insist on \u201cpolitical issue\/premise\u201d of AFSPA that we must take care!<\/div>\n<div class=\"zemanta-pixie\"><a class=\"zemanta-pixie-a\" title=\"Enhanced by Zemanta\" href=\"http:\/\/www.zemanta.com\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"zemanta-pixie-img\" src=\"http:\/\/img.zemanta.com\/zemified_e.png?x-id=d521fcf6-bbd7-4c8f-95fc-700c84d25890\" alt=\"Enhanced by Zemanta\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n\n<p class=\"syndicated-attribution\">Read more \/ Original news source: <a href=\"http:\/\/kanglaonline.com\/2011\/09\/ten-issuesquestions-to-understand-the-significance-of-the-political-premise-of-afspa\/\">http:\/\/kanglaonline.com\/2011\/09\/ten-issuesquestions-to-understand-the-significance-of-the-political-premise-of-afspa\/<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><!-- AddThis Button Begin --><br \/>\n&#160; To insist that one must address and understand \u201cPolitical Premise\u201d of AFSPA is to&#8230; <a href=\"http:\/\/kanglaonline.com\/2011\/09\/ten-issuesquestions-to-understand-the-significance-of-the-political-premise-of-afspa\/\">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":[116,764,265,64,33,257,43,330,639,108,231],"class_list":["post-17477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kanglaonline","category-news","tag-afspa","tag-anna-hazare","tag-armed-forces-special-powers-act-1958","tag-government-of-india","tag-india","tag-irom-chanu-sharmila","tag-k-featured","tag-kanglaonline-2","tag-notes-from-bimol-akoijam","tag-politics","tag-supreme-court"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.manipur.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17477","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=17477"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.manipur.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17477\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17599,"href":"http:\/\/www.manipur.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17477\/revisions\/17599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.manipur.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.manipur.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.manipur.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}