[Assam] AFSPA

[baruah at bard.edu]

The Reddy Committee’s report on the Armed Forces Special Powers Act,  
submitted on June 6th 2005, though not made public officially, has  
been available on the Hindu newspaper’s website since October 2006.  
See http://www.hindu.com/nic/afa/

I have critiqued the report in my recent publication, Postfrontier  
Blues. The following is from that publication:

   “The Reddy Committee makes a significant recommendation to create  
grievance cells in districts where the army operates, in order to  
“ensure public confidence in the process of detention and arrest.”  It  
acknowledges that “there have been a large number of cases where those  
taken away without warrants have ‘disappeared,’ or ended up dead or  
badly injured”. Many in India’s security establishment are unhappy  
about the Committee’s criticism of the security forces and its  
recommendations of changes in the law.  Apparently it is because of  
the discomfort of the Army and the Ministry of Defence that the  
government was reluctant to make the report public . . . . The Reddy  
Committee, to its credit, recognizes that the law has become “a symbol  
of oppression, an object of hate and an instrument of discrimination  
and highhandedness” and it recommends the repeal of the law. Yet it  
wants key elements of AFSPA to remain. So it recommends that some of  
its provisions be incorporated into a pan-Indian counter-terrorism  
law, in effect proposing a significant reform with one hand and taking  
it away with the other.  The stated goal of this self-contradictory  
recommendation, quite incredibly, is to help “erase the feeling of  
discrimination and alienation” among the people of the region.  Even  
this clever compromise, that would have had almost no practical effect  
on the ground, is opposed by India’s security establishment.”

  As indicated earlier, a pdf version of my paper is available free of  
charge. The link is below.
   http://www.eastwestcenterwashington.org/

   PS 33   Postfrontier Blues: Toward a New Policy Framework for  
Northeast India
             by Sanjib Baruah
             PDF Format

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The Reddy Committee’s report on the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, submitted on June 6th 2005, though not made public officially, has been available on the Hindu newspaper’s website since October 2006. See http://www.hindu.com/nic/afa/
   
  I have critiqued the report in my recent publication, Postfrontier Blues. The following is from that publication:
   
  “The Reddy Committee makes a significant recommendation to create grievance cells in districts where the army operates, in order to “ensure public confidence in the process of detention and arrest.”  It acknowledges that “there have been a large number of cases where those taken away without warrants have ‘disappeared,’ or ended up dead or badly injured”. Many in India’s security establishment are unhappy about the Committee’s criticism of the security forces and its recommendations of changes in the law.  Apparently it is because of the discomfort of the Army and the Ministry of Defence that the government was reluctant to make the report public . . . . The Reddy Committee, to its credit, recognizes that the law has become “a symbol of oppression, an object of hate and an instrument of discrimination and highhandedness” and it recommends the repeal of the law. Yet it wants key elements of AFSPA to remain. So it recommends that some of its provisions be incorporated into
 a pan-Indian counter-terrorism law, in effect proposing a significant reform with one hand and taking it away with the other.  The stated goal of this self-contradictory recommendation, quite incredibly, is to help “erase the feeling of discrimination and alienation” among the people of the region.  Even this clever compromise, that would have had almost no practical effect on the ground, is opposed by India’s security establishment.”
   
  As indicated earlier, a pdf version of my paper is available free of charge. The link is below.    
  http://www.eastwestcenterwashington.org/
   
  PS 33   Postfrontier Blues: Toward a New Policy Framework for Northeast India
            by Sanjib Baruah 
            PDF Format  
     

       
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