North east India: Questions of regional ethnicity and AFSPA, 1958

Creation of Telengana from Andhra Pradesh in 2014 has proved to be a trigger for different politically motivated agitations in other parts of the country. This has had an especially cascading effect for the already fragmented and fissured North east part of our country. Demands for the separate states, especially along regional, ethnic and linguistic lines have been renewed especially in the states of Assam, Mizoram and Nagaland. After Telangana, there is a renewed and forceful demand by various groups like the Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) in Darjeeling district of West Bengal, All Boro Students Union (ABSU) and the Songbijit faction of the National Democratic Front of Boroland (NDFB) in the Autonomous Boroland Tribal Districts (BTAD) area in Assam, to force the creation of Gorkhaland and Boroland states. This has to be understood in the context of a long standing ‘crisis management approach’ adopted by the Centre towards this ethnically diverse and politically volatile region of the country. This approach has not borne any positive fruit of development and integration, assimilation for the region. In addition, the proclamation of one of the most draconian laws ever passed by the Indian Parliament, The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act of 1958 (AFSPA) and its continuance since then doesn't bode well for the much required democratic structure in the area. Long use of this Act has not helped end insurgencies in the area. Fulfillment of a demand for a separate state in another part of the country, its denial in the north east and continuance of AFSPA in the region is an uncomfortable dichotomy, Indian polity will need to resolve for development of this frontier region of our country. This paper attempts to understand the provisions of AFSPA, 1958 in the context of various International declarations of human rights and argue the need to repeal the Act as in spite of its long presence it has not been able to answer the questions of assimilation and development.