Witoubou Newmai
These loud vaunts of various organisations and activists campaigning against the human rights violations in the Northeast region are akin to treating the sores rather than choosing to treat the disease that causes the sores. After every incident of Army atrocity or human rights violation, people see the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) as black, but in no time do things go back to a usual state of affairs, until the next incident when the Act is again seen as 'black'.
After a long gap, AFSPA has become 'black' again today in the Naga eyes because of the Wuzu incident (investigation is still underway). The Act is now raven black because of the Assam Rifles' legal notice to a student organisation.
In 1987, there was a concerted campaign against the AFSPA after the Oinam village (in Senapati district in Manipur) incident. Similar episode was witnessed in Manipur after the Molom incident (Imphal) in the year 2000 that had prompted Irom Sharmila to agitate. Four years later, one Thangjam Manorama Devi was raped and killed by the security forces in the outskirts of Imphal. Sporadic incidents of violence on Imphal’s streets followed for months against the AFSPA. The 'Naked protest' of the Manipuri women in front of the Assam Rifles gate in the heart of Imphal was synonymous with the Manorama murder incident. Five years later, in 2009, the anti-AFSPA protest was at its peak after the Tehelka exposure on the extra judicial killing of one Chongkham Sanjit by the Manipur police in uniform. In between all these incidents, the human rights groups and civil society organisations appeared to have skewed from their obligation.
For the establishment, the focus is often on the particular incident that triggers the campaign against the draconian law but not the law. If incidents such as the Thangjam Manorama Devi murder case or the Wuzu firing incident attracts public’s ire that subsequently triggers protest against the AFSPA, the likely immediate measures of the concerned authorities are to operate things on more cautious note to avoid such unfortunate incidents rather than addressing the core issue.
As we know, a society is what its leaders are; the colossal illustration of the civil society organisations' partisan and cock-eyed angle of campaign on any issue brings disenchantment in people. As long as we do not allow ourselves to make an effort to separate what is hypocrisy and what is not, such affairs are here to stay. Urgency has arisen for the blurred line to be traced once again for distinction.
Since the AFSPA affects the "universal moral code", only a society ignoring the importance of its moral landscape will react in happy indifference to such black laws.
A sustained campaign has been the long felt need of the region.
