In a first admission that Centre was keen to water down the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA), 1958, Union Minister of State for Home Hansraj Gangaram Ahir informed the Lok Sabha that it was considering a proposal to make the Act more “operationally effective and humane.”
The AFSPA is in force in several northeastern States.
In a written reply in the Lok Sabha, Mr. Ahir said: “There is no proposal under consideration of the Government of India to withdraw the Armed Forces (Jammu and Kashmir) Special Powers Act, 1990. However, a proposal is under consideration to make the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 more operationally effective and humane.”
The decision came after the Home Ministry decided to reduce the number of Central Armed Police Force personnel deployed in the northeastern States.
Army opposed move
The Army had opposed any such move and several rounds of meetings had taken place with the Home Ministry. Home Minister Rajnath Singh had suggested that certain “tweaking” was required as far as deployment of Central forces was concerned. An official said the insurgency-related incidents in Northeast had come down to 308 in 2017, the lowest since 1997.
Another official said there was no final decision to repeal the AFSPA as of now, but the Jeevan Reddy Committee report, which recommended so, was taken into account. The Centre appointed a five-member committee headed by Justice B.P. Jeevan Reddy in November 2004 to review the AFSPA.
The committee recommended that the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, should be modified to specify the powers of the armed forces and the Central forces.The Home Ministry was of the view that additional Central forces would be sent to the northeastern States and the respective State governments would deploy the State police for regular law and order and patrolling duties. In 2017, no insurgency-related incidents were reported in Tripura and Mizoram and no security forces were killed in Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya and Mizoram.
