J&K - Paramilitary forces - 3The word “special” is one of the most dangerous in the English language.

Special Branch invokes fear. Special Education, trepidation. Special needs, sorrow. And special treatment? Well, Guantanamo Bay’s inmates can tell you all about that one!

Attach the fearsome euphemism “special” to “powers” and it’s hard to beat for sheer intimidation. Little wonder then, that the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) is as sinister in fact as it is in sound.

Consider some of the powers AFSPA gives the army.

  • The right to shoot to kill if there is an assembly of five or more persons giving only such due warning as considered necessary. (AFSPA doesn’t distinguish between a peaceful gathering and a violent mob).
  • The right to arrest people without warrants.
  • Exemption from prosecution for even for the worst crimes, unless this protection is revoked by the Centre. (To date the Centre has rarely revoked this exemption.)

Theoretically, no democracy should have such laws. Practically, these draconian measures are needed. But they must be applied only for short durations, when local administrations are faced with extreme conditions.

So imagine the state of Kashmir, which has lived for an incredible 20 years in the shadow of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act. While it has been effectively deployed against terrorists and helped control violence in the Valley, abuse and misuse of AFSPA has also been widespread.

That’s the crux of the problem today, no matter what the government and military say.

Even official sources record some 133 cases of abuses by armymen (Human rights groups have recorded thousands). These include rape, torture, extortion, kidnapping, encounters and even “murder for medals”, the killing by troops of innocent people who are then dressed up as militants so that their killers can receive medals and bravery awards. Almost none the armymen accused of these crimes has been prosecuted because of AFSPA.

The army is unrepentant. “I would like to say that the provisions of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act are very pious to me and I think to entire Indian Army,” Lt. Gen. B.S. Jaswal, the chief of the army’s Northern Command, recently said. “We have religious books, there are certain guidelines which are given there, but all the members of the religion do not follow it, they break it also, does it imply that you remove the religious book or you remove this chap. My take on it is to find someone guilty, take him to task, but don’t touch this pious document or provision of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act giving the similarity to religious book.”

When generals speak like this, how would you react if you were a Kashmiri?

Would you still believe in Indian democracy and justice? In the benign character of the Indian people, and the moral superiority of this nation? In the honour and bravery of Indian troops? Would you accept living in a virtual police state as the India you were promised in 1947?

There’s no doubt in my mind that excesses and abuses by Indian troops shielded by AFSPA have done more to alienate the ordinary populace in Kashmir and the Northeast than anything Pakistan or China have ever done. That old ladies are joining youths in pelting troops with rocks across Kashmir and the Northeast stands as proof of this.

Deep public hostility to troops in places like Manipur is particularly important for one reason – it tears down the bigoted notion that Kashmiris, being Muslims, are just born violent, and fight the Indian state as part of their DNA.

People are people, and when abused, raped, shot, tortured, and murdered, they will stand up and fight back.

Since the abuses straining Kashmir’s and the Northeast’s ties to India have been carried out under the AFSPA, dropping it doesn’t take any special wisdom, only common sense.

The government gets this, but the military and intelligence agencies are loathe to lose the power to turn every jawan into a little dictator.

So the army blithely denies AFSPA is draconian and says it’s needed because the situation in Kashmir and Manipur etc. is – you guessed it – “special”.

This is both a polite dismissal of India’s Fundamental Rights and a tacit acceptance of the army’s own incompetence.

Sure, when first called into Kashmir 20 years ago, the army was not trained or equipped to tackle such civil unrest. That they needed a blunt instrument was understandable.

But 20 years down the road how come the army has failed to develop and deploy new peace-keeping and anti-terror tactics? If Indian troops can be effective peacekeepers in Africa without AFSPA-like protection, why can’t they do the same at home?

Because it’s harder of course, which is exactly why AFSPA must go. It has become the crutch forces lean on to avoid bettering their own skills – much like Indian police forces, which prefer torture, illegal phone tapping, narco-analysis and encounters because they are quicker and easier than real policing.

We shouldn’t be surprised that the army is imitating the police because we’ve sent the army to do the police’s job. A noble force designed to defend our nation against external enemies has been corroded by having to tackle domestic political insurgencies. This has bled the army, weakened its morale and ethics, and worn down its ethos almost to the point of no recovery.

Pretending we can squash the political problems of Kashmir and the Northeast with military force is not only destroying these states, its destroying the army.

Political problems need political solutions. One doesn’t have to be a student of history to see this. One doesn’t need to be a human rights activist to know absolute power corrupts absolutely. One doesn’t have to be a constitutional expert to realise that turning Kashmir into a police state for 20 years also hurts India’s democracy.

It’s simple enough to see that if an approach hasn’t worked for 20 years, then maybe it is time to try another.