Problem of North East is Governance not AFSP Act

Mr Ved Marwah, former governor of Manipur, and author of the book "India in Turmoil" in an article titled "Give the army a break" in the Tehelka Magazine [Vol 6, Issue 44, Dated November 07, 2009] has focused on the double speak indulged by the governments in the Northeast on the Armed Forces Special Powers Act. The general perception is that it is the fault of the army that this Act is promulgated.

Pointedly Mr Marwah says: "In the Northeast, specifically, there is hardly any rule of law and most laws remain only on paper. Everyone flouts the law with impunity. The demand for the repeal of the [Armed Forces Special Powers]Act is strongly supported by all political parties in the region. Even the ruling parties in these states do not oppose the demand for its abrogation. However, their doublespeak on the controversial law cleverly hides the fact that the extension of the Act to their state depends on their own government issuing a notification declaring the state as a disturbed area." The article (available at http://tehelka.com/story_main43.asp?filename=Ne071109proscons.asp# ) worth reading.

In fact the problem in the Northeast is governance and absence of rule of law. Politicians have misused the state apparatus for years to make money and even have working arrangements with insurgent groups. In this context, I am reproducing an article "Key to Northeast: governance" I had written for a national daily. Though it was published five years back (on October 6, 2004) it is still relevant. Unless we address this issue there is no hope for the Northeast.

Key to Northeast: governance

R. Hariharan Oct 06, 2004

We are a nation where the cow is venerated; but the army is not. The army hits the headlines regularly when jawans die, or when an armyman commits a crime. And, of course, we have the Republic Day parade when the armed forces display new uniforms and weaponry. But in terms of public respect, the army seems to be increasingly out of favour.

The army was hauled over coals for the rape and murder of Thangjam Manorama Devi in Manipur. It is a matter of irrelevant detail for the public and the media, however, that the Assam Rifles is not the army. It is a typical product of bureaucratic confusion — officered partly by the army, partly by the police and partly by the officers of the Assam Rifles. Operationally, it is under the army but administratively it comes under the ministry of home affairs. The bureaucracy loves this sort of dual control. The army, not surprisingly, hates it because when a crisis occurs, the blame is put on it. That is one reason why neither the home nor the defence ministry have given a satisfactory response to all the questions raised by the Thangjam Manorama Devi murder.

This is not to condone the alleged crimes committed by Assam Rifles personnel. The criminals who committed the rape and murder should be brought to justice. The army, if given a free hand, will do it.

One is aware that the Indian jawan is not from the heavens. He is a product of the same society that spawns the Phoolan Devis. He is probably Karuppan, a country yokel from Tamil Nadu who couldn’t land a job, or Ramcharan, a student who was part of a mob stoning shops in a Bihar town. The average jawan is in the army because it is a government job within his reach. The army feeds him, clothes him, provides healthcare and accommodation. But the army does something more: it drastically changes him. By turning this country lout or urban dropout into a disciplined soldier, the army is performing yet another unheralded national service. The change that army training brings into the lives of the Karuppans and Ramcharans is nothing short of miraculous. He begins to stand erect, learn to use fire arms with precision, become more orderly in his habits. Above all, he gets to have faith in army systems because he knows the army will take care of him for life. He understands patriotism. So he doesn’t mutiny on seeing the “drama” politicians enact to save their own skin but he becomes cynical.

Take Manipur. Time and again, the army made it clear that it is a defence force not a special police force. Yet it has been used as a glorified police force in the Northeast for the last five decades. In the remote regions here, the armed forces are the only visible representation of the government. And what are the conditions in which they operate? The then Manipur governor, Ved Marwah, a distinguished policeman in his own right, put it like this in ’02: “There are quite a few states where the so-called terrorist groups are like private armies. Their only objective is making money through extortion ...We have today some states in our country, where the criminal justice system has almost totally broken down...”

I know this to be absolutely true because I have served in Manipur. You have to go out of the way to “set up” a whole lot of things if you want to get an extremist convicted. That is why custodial killings take place. I remember investigating a custodial killing in Manipur for the army. I met the local DIG, Crime, a god-fearing man, who told me, “Why is the army wasting its time? When I was SP, I never took them into custody; I shot dead 23 of them. And, believe me, everything was at peace after that.” What more you require to call Manipur a failed state?

It is in this failed state that the army has been called upon to maintain security for the past 30 years in order to protect the cozy ambience for the politician-criminal-drug trafficker-extremist nexus to carry on their ‘normal’ activities. Who is to blame? It is a standard operative procedure that all well-to-do Manipuris send their kids to study in “India”; and they fly out and fly in on subsidised airfares. Manipur doesn’t matter to them. It is only the ordinary person who bears the brunt of the chaos. I feel sorry for Manipur, where I have served, and the beautiful people of Manipur many of whom, I know, are silently living in this abysmal situation for more than 30 years, denied their basic rights. It is a tribute to the Manipuris that they have produced Kunjurani Devis in spite of all this.

The time has come for politicians and the people — not only of the Northeast but the rest of India — to clean up the act. And not only in Manipur but in the whole of the Northeast. Give the common person, who cannot fly to Delhi or study in JNU, the basic needs to lead a normal, safe life. Insurgency in the region is big business. There are over a dozen motley groups of the criminal-minded who can always find a cause and extort money from the gullible. And many of them have their own links with the criminalised polity. Trafficking in narcotics is a big business there. There is a lot of unemployment.

The Armed Forces Powers Special Powers Act, if imposed forever, makes sense only for politicians of a failed state, because it protects them. If the Act is revoked, they will have to run to Delhi for safety. But the fact is that if normal law and order is enforced through good governance, the Manipur Rifles can round up the extremists, the army will not be required to do so. When you don’t prosecute a criminal, you don’t need special powers to take action against him.

And, for heaven’s sake, don’t rubbish the army and blame it for our national inaction. You need the army to guard the frontiers when the nights are cold and we sleep comfortably in our beds. If you rubbish soldiers, you end up demoralising them. And a demoralised army does not make a secure nation.