DOST KHAN
JAMMU: While most of the Omar led NC-Congress Government’s tenure was consumed by the contentious issue of whether the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) should be scrapped or continued in Jammu and Kashmir, the new government has also made it its main Mantra. The only difference is that the party which created hue and cry over raking up this issue is now behaving like a lame duck as junior and ‘subjugated’ partner of the PDP-BJP coalition. BJP has ended up as a big embarrassment just to taste the loaves of power in hitherto ‘out of bounds’ Kashmir.
Even as BJP is crying hoarse over not touching AFSPA in the larger national interest, the Chief Minister goes confidently with his ‘calm and composed’ provocation of how to get this Act revoked. BJP is left with no option. It has to abide by the diktat, no matter whether these come from secessionists or soft- secessionists. Nobody is taker in Kashmir to their yells of AFSPA being sacrosanct.
The issue of revocation of AFSPA had actually taken birth in secessionist and separatist camp which was compassionately cradled by PDP and finally adopted by National Conference. Later, Congress took upon itself to take the issue to final conclusion. This is a unique example of convergence in divergence. This is also the essence of democracy, which is all about people’s will; this is the line votaries of AFSPA revocation kept arguing.
Minus secessionists and separatists, those raking up, instead of taking up, the issue of AFSPA revocation are duly and democratically elected representatives of the people. They have been chosen in the globally acclaimed elections of 2008 and now in 2014. Therefore, their views need to be given the weight they deserve. This is the spirit of democracy.
AFSPA, which PDP and some other mainstream leaders call a ‘Draconian’ law is enforced in entire Jammu and Kashmir. It owes its sustenance to Disturbed Areas Act enacted by the State Government in 1997. In 2011, the then Home Minister P Chidambaram had said that if the Disturbed Areas Act was withdrawn by the State Government, AFSPA will be revoked automatically. This generated a heated debate with legal experts in Kashmir saying the AFSPA has to be revoked by the Centre. Over the issue of Disturbed Areas Act having expired in 1998, some constitutional experts and law makers opined that AFSPA had automatically become redundant. However, noted Supreme Court lawyer, former Jammu and Kashmir Deputy Chief Minister and now Member Parliament Muzaffar Hussain Beig had countered this argument, saying AFSPA is still applicable in the State even if JK Disturbed Areas Act has lapsed. He quoted Section 3 of the AFSPA and said the Centre can declare any area as disturbed. The Act has to be revoked by the Centre and it would make no difference even if the State Government seeks its revocation by passing a resolution in the Assembly, he had maintained amid heightened controversy over the issue.
Constitutional niceties, technicalities and nitty gritty apart, the issue remains that the mainstream politicians from Kashmir, irrespective of their party affiliations, want this Act to go. Let it go? What will happen? The borders are not going to change. This has not changed even after three wars and two decade proxy war unleashed by Pakistan.
The army should move to their barracks and concentrate on checking infiltration. Same should apply to the Central Paramilitary Forces. It is better for them to remain in their formations rather than being lame ducks before blood hounded terrorists without weapons to defend themselves. Why should they lay their lives when those who are beneficiaries of their sacrifices have nothing but the contempt to offer to the valiant soldiers? If the leaders are now convinced that the situation has come back to normal where if there is any fear, it is due to presence of the armed and security forces.
The post AFSPA scene across the Valley will be quite different and pleasantly amazing. The politicians will be relieved of an issue which they keep on harping, sending all other issues concerning common man to back burner. They will relax while moving around amid their ‘own people’ without the ‘nuisance’ of Indian security cover. Nobody will bother them during dead of nights asking food, shelter and whatever. The chosen legislators will feel as safe as the Panchayat members with nobody daring to touch even a single hair. The ministers will go back their homes in Shehr-e-Khas and rural peripheries to a warm homely care. Situation will see a discernible change over with ‘elated’ leaders gradually even asking for removing their police cover. With ‘Draconian’ law gone, the ‘black era’ will be automatically over. However, the claimants of peace will have to make it sure that the era of abductions, rapes, extortion, blasts and selective killings do not occur in the name of Jihad once the era of AFSPA is over. If the Mufti can guarantee that by first renouncing the security cover of central forces, let the AFSPA go.
