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| Campaign against AFSPA misplaced, people are booked under PSA | | News ANALYSIS | | Early Times Report
Jammu, Sept 14: Chief Minister Omar Abdullah's opposition to the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) is as misplaced as it is ill-motivated and calculated to divert the attention of the suffering people away from the real issues, including his inability to provide a good government to the people and protect the life and public and private property. Since he has failed to deliver and establish his authority in the state in general and the restive Kashmir province in particular, he and his supporters in and outside the government have unleashed a relentless misinformation campaign with a viewing to creating an impression that it is the Army and the AFSPA that are squarely responsible for all the ills facing the nation in Kashmir Valley.
As expected, his detractor, including the perverted social activists/human rights activities/dictatorial Leftists who, like the Islamic radicals or the ardent believers in the concept of political Islam, do not believe in the concepts of State, Nation, Sovereignty, Borders and Nationalism or those who consider as a congregation of nearly two dozen nations with each nationality having the power to secede, too, have joined the anti-Army and the Anti-AFSPA crusade. The motive of Omar Abdullah and his supporters is very clear: They want to wreck the Indian State and it is quite understandable.
What is not understandable is the senseless and mind-boggling support these anti-Army and anti-AFSPA formulations are getting from certain elements in the Indian political establishment overlooking the very serious concerns shown by the Army commanders and the Defence Minister and Defence Secretary. This has created a piquant situation and created alarm among the people of the country. An impression has gone down that the custodians of the Indian State, instead of fighting the enemy and isolating the Kashmiri communalists and separatists, are fighting against the very institution of the Indian State, thus negating the very idea of India. The bulk of the Indian population is feeling disturbed and aghast owing to the negative attitude of certain elements in the political establishment towards the Army and the AFSPA. It has come to believe that it is not Pakistan but the Indian State that is sustaining militancy, secessionism and communalism in Kashmir. It is the Indian State that is providing oxygen to the otherwise dying separatists and militants.
Omar Abdullah and others of his ilk want the Union Government to withdraw the Army and AFSPA from the state in general and the Kashmir's Srinagar and Gandarbal districts in particular. Both these districts are, like other Kashmir's districts, highly disturbed and terrorist-infested. These districts have been witnessing violence on an unprecedented scale for days no. The situation is such that nothing is functioning there. So much so, the civil secretariat, the seat of the government has become dysfunctional. It is the likes of Syed Ali Shah Geelani who are ruling the roost.
How could the Chief Minister ask New Delhi to withdraw the Army and the AFSPA from these two districts and from other parts of the state, which was declared as a disturbed state long ago because of the Pakistan-sponsored secessionist and violent movement in Kashmir and other parts of the state? Moreover, there is no Army presence in the civilian areas of these two districts. The Army never ever takes on the unruly elements or subversives operating from the civilian areas on its own. The Army plays role only when the failed civil administration requisitions its services and when it so does it needs some legal cover so that it could meet the challenge firmly and resolutely and discharge its duties towards the nation effectively. Besides, whenever the Army captures any bad character or a subversive or the one indulging in anti-national activities, it hands over him to the concerned police station. It is the state police and the judiciary that take action against as per the law of the land. Hence, the demand put forth by the cornered, humbled, defeated and desperate Chief Minister and others of his ilk has no justification. He is simply trying to hoodwink the nation.
It needs to be noted that most of the persons who have been imprisoned during the past few days have been booked under the Public Safety Act (PSA) and not under the AFSPA. They have been arrested and booked not by the Army but by the state police, which is an organ of the civil administration controlled and directed by none other than the Chief Minister. If the Chief Minister, who has been demanding the revocation of the ARFSPA, which has nothing to do with those booked and arrested under the PSA, is really interested in allowing the Kashmiri hooligans to roam about freely and cause murder and mayhem, he should repeal forthwith the PSA. It is within his power. He should not blame the Army for the actions his own police has been taking against the "innocent Kashmiri civilians."
The Chief Minister should look all these facts in the face and revise his approach towards the Army and the AFSPA. The Army and the AFSPA are needed in the sensitive border state and they shall remain there. The Chief Minister should exercise the choice he can and he can do so by revoking the PSA and releasing all those whom he and his police booked under this Act. He should do it and face the music. There is no doubt that he would be lynched by the unruly mob the moment he revokes the PSA. |
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