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The fortnight before the year end has been very tumultuous.\u00a0India lost its first Chief of Defence Staff,\u00a0Gen Bipin Rawat\u00a0along with 12 others\u00a0in a helicopter crash near Coonoor in Tamil Nadu. It was during this fortnight that the\u00a0farmers called off their year-long agitation at Delhi borders after Prime Minister Narendra Modi unexpectedly conceded their main demands. It was also during this fortnight that the death of 15 civilians in firing by\u00a0security forces in Nagaland sparked outrage not only in the Northeast but all across the country.<\/p>\n
Tehelka in the current issue has extensively covered all these events. Our cover story this time is the Ground Zero Report from Nagaland. It is clear now that the tip-off about the likely movement of insurgents was half-baked, if not downright misleading. In no case,\u00a0bad intelligence gathering can be a justification for killing of innocents.<\/p>\n
The Army has ordered a Court of Inquiry, while the Nagaland government has set up a Special Investigation Team to unravel the truth. There is a need to conclude the investigation rapidly to provide healing touch to the hurt feelings. However, it is a sad reminder that\u00a0past inquiries have not inspired much confidence because no security personnel under the AFSPA has till date been charged for killing civilians.\u00a0 Jammu and Kashmir is an example where during the past over two decades, the Centre has not given prosecution sanction under AFSPA in cases recommended by the State government against security forces.<\/p>\n
Notwithstanding the logic provided by the government and the Armed forces, the unfortunate incident obviously is the result of complete\u00a0impunity provided to the armed forces under the AFSPA. The Act currently remains in force in Assam, Nagaland, Manipur, three districts of Arunachal Pradesh, and areas falling within the jurisdiction of eight police stations of the State bordering Assam. The Nagaland Chief Minister, Neiphiu Rio and Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma have immediately demanded repeal of this Act.\u00a0 There is a need to understand that AFSPA must be brought to a halt and the long-pending demand for its repeal acceded to before the Act\u00a0breeds political anger.<\/p>\n
Priority should be to ensure that the\u00a0tragedy does not escalate into any further violence and instability in Nagaland.\u00a0\u00a0The incident has the potential to spoil the bonhomie and the fragile Naga peace talks between the Government and the National Socialist Council of Nagalim. A\u00a0high-level political intervention is required at this juncture. Prime Minister Narendra Modi may want to consider a visit to Nagaland, with a message of regret about what happened and reassurance that it won\u2019t happen again\u00a0to restore civilians\u2019 faith in security forces.\u00a0 This\u00a0will strengthen political credibility and show genuine remorse.<\/p>\n
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The fortnight before the year end has been very tumultuous.\u00a0India lost its first Chief of Defence Staff,\u00a0Gen Bipin Rawat\u00a0along with 12 others\u00a0in a helicopter crash near Coonoor in Tamil Nadu. It was during this fortnight that the\u00a0farmers called off their year-long agitation at Delhi borders after Prime Minister Narendra Modi unexpectedly conceded their main demands. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":334999,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[214,23,2205],"tags":[14899,750],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334998"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=334998"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334998\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":335000,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334998\/revisions\/335000"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/media\/334999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=334998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=334998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=334998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}