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Military wisdom can't dictate

Kashmir Times. Dated: 7/27/2016 11:51:16 PM

Review of AFSPA or ban on pellet guns cannot be put on hold forever because the political leadership fails to assert itself

The casual and non-serious manner in which the vital issue of use of pellet guns for crowd control in Kashmir has been taken up by the central government is shocking and reveals scant regard for human lives. A day after union home minister Rajnath Singh announced to form a panel to look into the possibility of substitutes for pellet guns with calling for at least a temporary end to pellet guns till the findings of the report, the CRPF Director General maintained that they would continue to use what he called "less lethal weapons". While he maintained that the pellets would be used only in extreme cases, an army general serving in Kashmir also came out in defense of the pellet guns. These statements show how the course of the Indian government is going to be dictated in Kashmir through the barrel of the gun and with scant regard for loss and lives and impact of excessive violence on the lives of the rest. The union home minister may indeed be answerable for dragging his feet on the issue and keeping it pending by setting up panels and postponing any decision on pellet guns. The CRPF and Army have gone a step further and have outrightly rejected it which amounts to snubbing an elected government of the country. India is a democratic country where the legislature and the executive cannot be subservient to the armed forces and para-militaries. Earlier, in the name of security, the Army has shot down proposals of reviewing Armed Forces Special Powers Act. Former union home minister. P. Chidambaram, last week admitted that the UPA government could not take a decision on review of AFSPA and decreasing footprints of military because the Army put its foot down. The UPA cannot escape the responsibility of having succumbed to the dictates or atleast the wisdom of the military Now, in the name of maintaining law and order, a similarly dangerous argument is being propelled where the elected government is likely to be dictated not by the needs of the public it is meant to serve but by the strategic wisdom of the security forces. That the latter's word is taken as a gospel truth is a matter of concern not only for Kashmir but for the entire country because such actions would have an ultimate bearing on the entire country.
The logic being peddled by the security forces of use of pellet guns as 'extreme case' is ambiguous and is used only rhetorically and less in practice. The pellet gun has been used liberally to disperse even peaceful protests and mildly violent protests in the recent years. It has been used with even greater vengeance in the last one fortnight, killing people and maiming hundreds, including children as young as five year olds. Majority of the pellet gun victims are young children and 150 people including children have been partially or fully blinded. The shocking import of such brutality and barbarity, justified in the name of taming and controlling mobs, who are no hardened criminals, made the state high court sit up and take notice of the grave issue at hand. The state high court observations and directions to stop the practice of using pellet guns has fallen on deaf ears, even as it amounts to open defiance of the court directives. That military wisdom should be given precedence to both the country's executive and the judiciary is a dangerous trend and will have long term ramifications. The horrifying images of pellet holed bodies and blinded children one sees at present are precursor to a future that is far more bleak and dark.