The central issue is, however, not that the Americans are running us down, but that we have provided them with the opportunity to lecture to us. The US Congress has largely based itself on the findings of the Amnesty International about conditions prevailing in Punjab and Kashmir. Our government has questioned the credentials of this voluntary international agency. Such a stance washes less and less with each passing day. The Amnesty International has over the years established a certain reputation for objectivity, it is not given to making glib, irresponsible statements. The organization has these own sources, it is known to check and re-check the. information flowing to it before it allows itself to reach conclusions.
CIA agent: Our Government has consistently refused its emissaries permission to enter Punjab and Kashmir to enable them to investigate in detail allegations of torture and extra-judicial executions. Legality may still be on our side, but in sensitive matters of this nature, the airing of legal rights is a poor substitute for credibility.
It is no longer possible to hurl crude abuses in the direction of the Amnesty International either, such that it is an outfit promoted, financed and manned by the Central Intelligence Agency.
Besides, any number of voices have been raised within the country itself on the manner our army has gone and is going about its business in Punjab and Kashmir. The Armed Services (Special Powers) Act and the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act have provided the cover for some grave excesses, verging on savagery, committed by army and paramilitary forces let loose in the two States.
The assertion that insurgents operating over there are not exactly guileless, guiltless specimens and there is no alternative to answering their bestial conduct by identical behavior on the part of our army and para-military contingents only detracts from our moral position. It also renders that much more uncertain the prospects of our being able to achieve what we have set out to achieve, State-organized torture and mayhem can only further alienate precisely those elements — young ideologues, housewives, etc., — who need to be won back to the Union of India.
Army Atrocities in North-East: And it is not a matter of happenings in the country’s northern territories alone. What the army and paramilitary personnel are doing in the North-east is equally disturbing, and was the subject of a detailed report by the Amnesty International and of a recent petition before the United Nations Human Rights Committee by a number of civil liberty groups.
The depredations in Nagaland the army was Dalit Voice responsible for in the Fifties and the Sixties are now a part of recorded history. That segment of history has apparently not quite come to a surcease. Ghastly reports continue to flow from Manipur on the rape and pillage army units have indiscriminately indulged in the name of suppressing terrorism; in Assam, Operation Bajrang has left behind a similar trail of bitter accusations of inhuman conduct ‘on the Bastet the army.
No light has yet been thrown on the systematically organized killings and arson in Tripura on election eve in 1988, which stopped the moment the counting of votes under the direct supervision of the army ensured a narrow Congress(l) victory.
Six states under Army: let is, therefore, not on account of what the US Congress has said that it is important to review the role of military and para- military operations in the disturbed Paris of the country. At least Hali-a-dozen States constituting the Union of India are now as good as army enclaves; the rest of the nation are told scanty little about occurrences in these States.
Patriotic froth is the easiest of sentiments to cultivate, and many unpardonable sins can be committed under the alibi of defending the country’s territorial integrity. Those currently under de facto army rule in such States as Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir and Manipur are, however, as much a part of the nation as residents elsewhere, their claim to civil liberties is as precious as ours, it would be altogether dangerous to presume that, since the army has taken over, things were going to be all right in these States from now. on.
Marxists also to be blamed: Despairing the army! is not a solution. It is an acknowledgement of the failure of the system to respond adequately to the aspirations of important sections of the people. Whether we choose to bay against the Amnesty International and the US Congress or not, the underlying problem will not go away. The chances of it getting aggravated are greater the longer the army stays in the so-called disturbed areas.
The left and democratic forces can hardly disown their responsibilities in the matter; by both tradition and instinct, the fight for civil liberties has been their badge of pride and honors.
Mouthing the standard patriotic cliches and leaving things to the military will not restore peace in Kashmir and Punjab and the North-east. To look the other way even when there is substantive evidence of gross excesses committed by army and para-military personnel will be an equally severe mistake, it will also diminish the moral stature of the left. (Decca Herald July 10). 5
