> If that is what the law is it does certainly sounds > very undemocratic. Why did they enact this kind of > law in the first place? > What were the oposition > doing? And more importantly, how much opposition(or > support) did the MPs > from Assam offer?
afspa ultimately owes its origin to a british colonial law---the armed forces (special powers) ordinance, 1942. its child, the assam disturbed areas act, 1955, was enacted by the assam state assembly, against phizo in nagaland---within 8 years of independence from british rule. compare the language from the two acts in this graphic: http://www.flonnet.com/fl2118/images/20040910005401400.jpg the 1955 law was followed by the central act in 1958 and later extended to all states in the north-east, 1972. in 1990, a similar law was passed for kashmir (look at the graphic again). the above is paraphrased from m s prabhakar's article http://www.flonnet.com/fl2118/stories/20040910006101200.htm. he mentions that no one in assam protested the 1955 law since it affected a remote area. since then, the law has spread to many other areas, including all places in assam. > In any case, bad laws are bad laws - they ought to go. the news item looks as if afspa is on its way out. but look at some of the other reports: "In a suggestion which may not be acceptable to many states, the Administrative Reforms Commission (ARC) on Monday recommended sweeping powers to the Centre to deploy armed forces in states and favoured a new law governing "federal crimes" like terrorism and human trafficking which can be probed by CBI on its own." (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Centre_may_get_power_to_deploy_troops_in_states/articleshow/2148754.cms) in other words, afspa will not die, but probably spread to other states in some other form. in central india, you have the naxalite menace to take care of. i think an afpsa-like law for the entire country would be acceptable to many, ram-da! ____________________________________________________________________________________ Bored stiff? Loosen up... Download and play hundreds of games for free on Yahoo! Games. http://games.yahoo.com/games/front _______________________________________________ assam mailing list [email protected] http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
