Indian Govt, Indian Army Disagree on Changing Harsh Law

Sinlung Says: Not sure what Indian government is thinking. Can the Bureaucrats, Army Officers, Union Ministers work and have sane thinking if their heads were forcefully pinned down with the cold barrel of the INSAS rifle stuck to their heads. If they can, they are not human beings. Everyone (we mean every citizen) in the states where the draconian law is in place has a story to tell. Their uncles beaten up, sisters molested, raped, parents humiliated; brothers made to do frog-jump on roads because they went to school. When children get to know what sound what gun makes instead of what kind of music the guitar makes.

When the male family members of villages are herded together at 4 in morning into small village playgrounds, leaving women in the houses for the Indian forces to molest, rape them, touch them unnecessarily. Yes, you can hear the women cry from afar. what can the the men do? What is their fault? AFPSA.

Many a families are broken because of these Indian Security monsters. Why do Armed Men with Guns need protection? They already have all the protection they need, their guns, their uniform, their terrorizing ways.

Has it solved the people problems since India’s independence. It aggravates a youth to die for a cause he/she knowing that someone from his/her village was shot dead in a Fake encounter. How many hits have the Indian Security forces really made on the so called militants. We believe it might be close to 1 or 2 per cent. the rest are Fake Encounters, for sake of promotions, kidnap, money, and everything else that comes with power.

Yes Absolute power does corrupt…and this is a fact with Indian Security Forces, they don’t need any protection if they are supposed to do what they are supposed to do. Provide Security, protect.

That’s a Far cry any way in India.

By Varghese K George & Aloke Tikku

New Delhi, Mar 30 : Changes in the controversial Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) — in force in Jammu and Kashmir and some northeastern states — will have to wait “until the army comes on board”.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had promised to consider amendments to AFSPA to make it more “humane”, but the army has found a draft proposal prepared by the home ministry “too drastic”, according to government sources.

“The army needs to be persuaded first before the government moves Parliament,” a source told HT.

The Centre or a state government can notify an area as disturbed under AFSPA and invoke the Act, giving security forces — the army, a central paramilitary force or even the police — wide-ranging powers, often criticized as draconian.

It is in force in parts of Assam, Manipur, Nagaland and J&K now. Manipur protester Irom Sharmila has achieved iconic status with her long-running hunger strike against the Act.

Two government panels — the Administrative Reforms Commission and the Justice Jeevan Reddy Committee — recommended scrapping the Act and amending others laws to give the army the powers it needs to fight insurgents.

Following resistance from the army, the ministry decided to tweak the law rather than push for a complete overhaul, which again has been found unacceptable by the army. “It will mean asking us to fight with our hands tied,” said a senior army functionary, refusing to be identified.

The key change proposed is to remove any explicit reference to the power of a non-commissioned officer, such as a Havaldar, to “cause death” if in his opinion it is necessary for maintenance of public order.

The ministry also sought to provide for a grievance redressal mechanism.

The Reddy panel was set up in 2004 to study the law in keeping with the PM’s promise to consider replacing AFSPA “with a more humane law that addresses both the concerns of national security and rights of citizens”.

Lt-Gen (retd) V.R. Raghavan was a member to ensure the army perspective was reflected. A government functionary said there was disappointment  at the army’s reluctance  “but the final view was it wouldn’t be advisable to ram it down the army’s throat”.