Dilute AFSPA and loose Kashmir
This is a time tested Act which has brought peace to Punjab, Mizoram, Assam and Tripura. Even Supreme Court has upheld this Act. That is why at the behest of the insurgents there has been constant din to take away this act.
IT WAS all over news channels on September, 8, 2010 that our 'Saffron Terror' fame Home Minister of India, PC Chidambaram, who also has the now defunct anti-Naxal Operation Green Hunt to his credit, is at it again. This time it is Army at the receiving end. Our worthy home minister is bent upon diluting Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) Act. If this comes through then let us bid goodbye to Kashmir and may be a large part of North East India as well. The people of the Kashmir Valley and their separatists leaders have perfected the art of playing the Pakistan card. Every time they raise the ante, the Government of India comes rushing with some new package to buy peace. This time these separatists in league with the radical preachers have been inciting the youth of the Valley that Azadi is just round the corner. All that is needed is some sacrifice. Indian leaders instead of firmly telling them that Azadi is never possible, played in their hands by offering autonomy. Instead of placing the valley under Presidents rule for the duration of six months, putting all these so called separatists leaders behind bars and bringing the valley to normal we allowed things to linger on till the situation is now going out of hand. Now these politicians want to tinker with the very Act which has ensured that Kashmir Valley remains part of India. The separatist leaders of the Valley confabulate openly with Pakistani leaders but refuse to talk to Indian leaders. Since Kashmir is part of India so why are they allowed to do this ? Need of the hour is development in Kashmir and more jobs for the youth. This will be possible only if the youth are made to understand that if they want rest of India to accept them then they must also accept India as their motherland. This is a two way traffic. Nobody can have the cake and eat it too.
Pakistan, whom the Hurriat leader Geelani wants the Valley people to join, its Army in April this year used tanks, fighter aircrafts and heavy guns against its own citizens in curbing the insurgency in Swat Valley that is adjacent to Kashmir Valley. There was collateral damage to civilian property. Two lakh Pakistanis were displaced. Pakistani Army has now invited Chinese Army to place their 10000 troops in Pakistan occupied Kashmir and curb the revolt there.
Indian Army has never used weapons bigger than rifle in fighting insurgency in Kashmir at the great cost of life and limb. So what is all this ruckus of AFSPA being inhuman. Incidentally this Act was enacted by Indian Parliament in 1958 when India had very tall and honest political leaders. Then the Prime Minister was Pundit Jawaharlal Lal Nehru. He would never would have allowed this act to be passed if it was inhuman. This is a time tested Act which has brought peace to Punjab, Mizoram, Assam and Tripura. Even Supreme Court has upheld this Act. That is why at the behest of the insurgents there has been constant din to take away this act.
This removal of AFSPA is not going to buy peace for Indian Netas. Government will only weaken itself and will squander all the good work done by the security forces. The demand of Azadi will become more shrill in the time to come. Dilution of this time tested Act will be even worse. Army is the last resort. If it fails then the country will break. Realizing this the Indian Parliament passed this Armed Forces Special Powers Act in 1958.At that time there were no Jehadis, no Naxals, no human bombs and no AK-47 or AK-56 rifles. The destructive technology had also not developed to the level that a single terrorist could cause great collateral damage as they do now. Besides the only armed rebellion India faced was in Nagaland and Mizoram. Even Supreme Court of India has upheld this Act in their judgment on 27 Nov 1997.So why dilute now when law and order problems in the country have gone from bad to worse? When the tall politicians of India of those days enacted this Act in Indian Parliament they never wanted this act to have human face. They desired this Act to be a deterrent. They were sure of their own governing capability and were confident that Army will seldom be required to work in internal security duties, this job being basically of Indian Police. Today, Army is deployed in J&K, Manipur, Assam, and Nagaland. But for the resistance from Army, our current political class would have deployed them against Naxals also with no questions asked. No wonder they want this act to be diluted. After all the elections also have to be won. Now they want to place the blame on Army, let the country go to dogs. Need of the hour is not to dilute this time tested Act but withdraw army from the Valley. Let Omar Abdullah and his police deal with the problem. This is what Abdullah also wants. The Army should confine itself to guarding the borders of the country.
It is a fact that politicians of this country have frittered away the hard earned advantages earned through sacrifices by Armed Forces due to shortsightedness, lack of vision, ignoring advise of military commanders and for vote bank politics. The history is again repeating itself. A peep in the past brings out that in 1962 Army were told to throw the Chinese out, when army was busy in construction project AMAR and UFs making coffee machines, in 1965 Haji Peer pass was given back, in 1971, 93000 PsOW were returned without any bargain. Now AFPSA is being diluted.
Pakistan, whom the Hurriat leader Geelani wants the Valley people to join, its Army in April this year used tanks, fighter aircrafts and heavy guns against its own citizens in curbing the insurgency in Swat Valley that is adjacent to Kashmir Valley. There was collateral damage to civilian property. Two lakh Pakistanis were displaced. Pakistani Army has now invited Chinese Army to place their 10000 troops in Pakistan occupied Kashmir and curb the revolt there.
Indian Army has never used weapons bigger than rifle in fighting insurgency in Kashmir at the great cost of life and limb. So what is all this ruckus of AFSPA being inhuman. Incidentally this Act was enacted by Indian Parliament in 1958 when India had very tall and honest political leaders. Then the Prime Minister was Pundit Jawaharlal Lal Nehru. He would never would have allowed this act to be passed if it was inhuman. This is a time tested Act which has brought peace to Punjab, Mizoram, Assam and Tripura. Even Supreme Court has upheld this Act. That is why at the behest of the insurgents there has been constant din to take away this act.
This removal of AFSPA is not going to buy peace for Indian Netas. Government will only weaken itself and will squander all the good work done by the security forces. The demand of Azadi will become more shrill in the time to come. Dilution of this time tested Act will be even worse. Army is the last resort. If it fails then the country will break. Realizing this the Indian Parliament passed this Armed Forces Special Powers Act in 1958.At that time there were no Jehadis, no Naxals, no human bombs and no AK-47 or AK-56 rifles. The destructive technology had also not developed to the level that a single terrorist could cause great collateral damage as they do now. Besides the only armed rebellion India faced was in Nagaland and Mizoram. Even Supreme Court of India has upheld this Act in their judgment on 27 Nov 1997.So why dilute now when law and order problems in the country have gone from bad to worse? When the tall politicians of India of those days enacted this Act in Indian Parliament they never wanted this act to have human face. They desired this Act to be a deterrent. They were sure of their own governing capability and were confident that Army will seldom be required to work in internal security duties, this job being basically of Indian Police. Today, Army is deployed in J&K, Manipur, Assam, and Nagaland. But for the resistance from Army, our current political class would have deployed them against Naxals also with no questions asked. No wonder they want this act to be diluted. After all the elections also have to be won. Now they want to place the blame on Army, let the country go to dogs. Need of the hour is not to dilute this time tested Act but withdraw army from the Valley. Let Omar Abdullah and his police deal with the problem. This is what Abdullah also wants. The Army should confine itself to guarding the borders of the country.
It is a fact that politicians of this country have frittered away the hard earned advantages earned through sacrifices by Armed Forces due to shortsightedness, lack of vision, ignoring advise of military commanders and for vote bank politics. The history is again repeating itself. A peep in the past brings out that in 1962 Army were told to throw the Chinese out, when army was busy in construction project AMAR and UFs making coffee machines, in 1965 Haji Peer pass was given back, in 1971, 93000 PsOW were returned without any bargain. Now AFPSA is being diluted.
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.We are battling with words with the Kashmere people in blogs for quite sometime. I feel there is a genuine grievances as they are tortured brutally for no fault of theirs. They have so much repressed
that they feel alienation with Pakistan will be beneficial. However way we try to convince them they have become obsessed. Time has come that we Indians and politicians come forward mix with our Kashmere brethern and sooth their sorrows. 80,000 crores has been allotted every year for the welfare of kashmere. No record is available to show that this money has reached the people of Kashmir. It has been syphoned out by corrupt politician whether it is Moofti or Omar. So time has come the Center initiate welfare acts thro trusted NGO rather than government offices and make them accountable to the spending. Poverty alleviation, Education schemes need to be prioritized. Involvement of more Kashmere youth to main stream by giving them free rail pass to see suffering of the people in other states in India will open their eyes and realization thus they are not only suffering but also others. And last but not least it has become necessary to highlight the suffering people of Pakistan are going to open eyes of these youth to know that by joining Pakistan will bring more misery than they are getting here in India.
.This is the extraordinary show of the spineless Government.
How could they even allow them to think of autonomy and diluting AFSPA. After all the sacrifices given by the Indian Army our selfish politicians get busy sharing the pat. We Indians will never allow this under any circumstances come what may>
.15 September 2010
The article is praise worthy to the depth of its spirit. It is added with great concern that the Army deployment of army without powers of Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) 1958 shall amount to tying the hands of final resort. The men in uniform are regularly laying down the ultimate sacrifice and by now, it is certainly in thousands. The stage is now set to put the State of J & K under rule of the President. The dilution of AFSPA is not the answer. The J & K is the part of India. There cannot be any dispute on this account.
The Politicians in the Central Government and of the State Government are to decide finally, whether it is law and order or the internal security problem? The remedy is to be carried out as per Constitution and with the full force to bring the unlawful activities to the stage of elimination
.15 September 2010
The article is praise worthy to the depth of its spirit. It is added with great concern that the Army deployment of army without powers of Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) 1958 shall amount to tying the hands of final resort. The men in uniform are regularly laying down the ultimate sacrifice and by now, it is certainly in thousands. The stage is now set to put the State of J & K under rule of the President. The dilution of AFSPA is not the answer. The J & K is the part of India. There cannot be any dispute on this account.
The Politicians in the Central Government and of the State Government are to decide finally, whether it is law and order or the internal security problem? The remedy is to be carried out as per Constitution and with the full force to bring the unlawful activities to the stage of elimination
.AFSPA should not be diluted but be withdrawn from the areas where the Army is not required to operate.It is the onus of CM to cover his back side without support of the Army.May be Cidambaram may give him covering fire.Why blame the Army.Army is only a tool in the hands of politician like Manmohan Singh.Kashmiris including Pandits have not called the Army in Kashmir.
.I cant see peace in Mizoram, Assam, as far as Punjab is concerned world is aware about it.
.yes there is nothing special with hearts and minds of kashmiris,but the land of kashmir is special for indian imeperialism.so go on with AFSPA... and kill all kashmiris and then there will be peace !!!!!!!!!!
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