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Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act : The controversy goes on |
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The committee constituted by Delhi to review the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act has wound up its trip to Assam by revealing that an “overwhelming” majority in Assam was against the idea of persisting with the legislation.
“The overwhelming opinion (in Assam) has been against the Act,” Justice B.P. Jeevan Reddy, who heads the committee, said after a two-day public hearing in the state capital. The five-member committee has already elicited opinion in Manipur and Tripura.
Justice Reddy said opinions were diverse with some wanting the Army to go and others demanding the Act’s repeal. “We have three opinions on the Act. First, the Act should be repealed and the Army should return to the barracks; second, the Army should stay but the Act be replaced with a more humane legislation, and third, the Army should stay and the Act modified.”
The panel was set up in the wake of the furore over the death of Thangjam Manorama in Assam Rifles’ custody.
Tripura cold to Act review
The two-day visit of the committee, headed by Supreme Court Justice (retired) B.P. Jeevan Reddy, to Tripura to review the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act and the effects of its enforcement turned out to be a damp squib.
After an eventful visit to Manipur, where they had received “scores of representations” pressing for the repeal of the Act, in Tripura, the committee received only seven memoranda, out of which three pleaded for retention of the Act to deal more effectively with insurgency and ethnic violence. Even those who demanded the repeal had nothing to say against the Army or Assam Rifles but against “fake encounters” and excesses committed by the state police and the Tripura State Rifles (TSR).
Highly-placed official sources said Chief Minister Manik Sarkar had made it clear that at least in Tripura there was no question of repealing the Act.
Reddy said Opposition Congress, INPT, Borok Human Rights Organisation (BHRO) and Tribal Student Federation (TSF) had submitted memoranda to the committee.
Though Reddy did not reveal details of the memoranda, sources said the Congress had strongly supported the enforcement of the Armed Forces (Special Power) Act.
However, the INPT, the BHRO and the TSF had demanded the repeal of the Act not only from Tripura but from other parts of the north-east as well.
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