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| Now State Govt says it has no powers on DAA? | | | Early Times Report
JAMMU, Sept 3: The State Law and Parliamentary affairs minister has started a fresh controversy over the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) and that too just a day after the union home minister, P. Chidambaram made his comments on the Act.
The union home minister while talking to newspersons in New Delhi has said that the State Government is fully empowered to decide whether or not a certain area within the State should be brought under the Disturbed Areas Act (DAA). The union home minister stated categorically that once the State Government deemed it fit to withdraw the DAA from the State, the AFSPA would immediately cease to remain operative.
The State Law and Parliamentary affairs minister has raked up a new controversy by maintaining that the State Government could only recommend the withdrawal of the DAA, but the ultimate authority to withdraw the DAA wrests with the central Government.
This is definitely a situation in which the State Government intends to push the ball into the centre's court while the fact is that the powers to bring any area within the geographical limits of the State under the DAA do not wrest with the centre. It is the sole prerogative of the State Government whether a certain area should be brought under the DAA or not. The central Government can do little in this matter other than advise the State Government on what is in the best interests of security. The Central Government can only extend the provisions of the AFSPA to those areas of the State which have been brought under the DAA by the State Government.
It should not be very difficult to understand the compulsion of the State Government in trying to throw the ball into the centre's court. The State Government has come under strong criticism from both its arch rivals in the mainstream political camp and the separatist leaders to have the AFSPA repealed as soon as possible. It is argued by the critics of the special powers enjoyed by the security forces under this Act that unbridled powers make the security forces unaccountable to the normal process of law. The State Government has often played to the galleries by joining the chorus of its arch rivals and the separatists in criticizing the AFSPA. The criticism of the Act by a government in power often results in an impression that the government is perhaps as powerless in having the Act repealed as its critics.
Now that the union home minister has made the situation clear, it has become essential for the State Government to create further confusion in the matter. It was the earlier stand of the State Government that the powers to withdraw the DAA wrested with it, but it was the sole authority of the Central Government to have the AFSPA repealed or not. Now that the home minister has taken the cat of the bag, the State Government has backtracked on its earlier stand. Now it intends to create a public impression that the State Government is totally helpless be it the DAA or the AFSPA. A tactics like that could have served the purpose of the Government in the good old days when people did not have any access to satellite television. Some confusion could have been helpful about what the union home minister said or what he did not say. But, after what has been seen and heard by the viewers on the television, the State Government has simply made an exercise in futility which is only counterproductive. |
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