Manipur Research Forum – Monthly Seminar Topic - AFSPA in India’s North East – a review By Thangkhanlal Ngaihte on Nov 1, 2014 at 4 pm Room no. 409, NEISP, 4th Floor, SSS-I, JNU, New Delhi Abstract: More than 50 years of de facto military rule through AFSPA in India’s northeast region has engendered neither stability nor peace, but only a pervasive sense of impunity and license, not only in terms of violence and crime, but also in terms of official corruption and collapse of the rule of law. But, the Act still remains in operation. In light of this, this article reviews the literature on the Act since the Act’s introduction in the Indian Parliament in 1958 and attempt to reframe the debate on the AFSPA by arguing that the opponents of the Act, by focussing only on the ‘draconian’ and ‘inhuman’ nature of the Act and thus framing the debate in moralistic terms, failed to challenge the core existential rationale of the Act, which is based on the doctrine of necessity. I attempt to fill that gap by following the necessity argument on its own terms and argue that the secessionist insurgencies which were used to justify the Act have long ceased to exist and therefore, the principle of existential necessity that provides a fig leaf to the Act also no longer applies. That the Act continues to survive despite all these indicate, among others, the Indian military’s increasing clout in the internal security policy making which may have grave implications for Indian democracy itself. About the Speaker: Thangkhanlal Ngaihte is an independent researcher based in New Delhi. His research interest are on the history and politics of India’s Northeast, theory and practice of emergency government and the state of exception, theory and practice of federalism, Indian politics, etc. He was formerly a journalist and columnist based in Manipur. He finished his MA and M.Phil in political science from Jawaharlal Nehru University in 2010. He has published in the journals Economic & Political Weekly (EPW) and Strategic Analysis, apart from newspapers like The Hindu, The Statesman, The Sangai Express, Imphal Free Press and online publications like ipcs.org., zogam., etc.
Posted on: Fri, 31 Oct 2014 15:18:06 +0000