GREETINGS TO ALL ON WORLD HUMAN RIGHTS DAY -
WISH SOMEONE WOULD CLARIFY MY DOUBTS.
Can RAPE or SEXUAL ASSSAULT be condoned or justified under any circumstances? Can those who do it be permitted to get away with impunity?
ASK THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA WHY IT REFUSES TO ACCORD SANCTION FOR PROSECUTION EVEN IN CASES OF MEDICALLY PROVED RAPES AND SEXUAL ASSAULTS!
HOW IS THIS JUSTIFIABLE IN A MODERN DEMOCRACY? THE RAPE OF EVEN ENEMY WOMEN IN CONQUERED TERRITORIES IS PROHIBITED UNDER THE GENEVA CONVENTION. THEN WHY ARE INDIAN CITIZENS BEING ALLOWED TO BE RAPED IN INDIA WITH IMPUNITY BY THE ROUGE ELEMENTS OF OUR ARMED FORCES? IS THERE ANY JUSTIFICATION FOR THIS BRUTAL VIOLATION OF A WOMAN'S BODY?
1.The Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) is a much hated law in the North East and Kashmir.
2.The armed forces were facing a very grave and peculiar threat from the secessionists in Kashmir and the North East and hence this law was enacted to help them counter the situation.
3.But over the years fake encounter deaths and custodial rapes have made the AFSPA a much hated law which serves only to alienate the people from mainstream India.
4. The Justice Jeevan Reddy Committee appointed by the Government of India to look into the functioning of AFSPA unanimously recommended its repeal.
5. The Justice Santosh Hegde Committee appointed by the hon'ble Supreme Court of India to look into complaints of encounter deaths in Manipur concluded that all the cases investigated by it were fake encounters and that the victims were all persons without any criminal/militant/terrorist backgrounds. This committee also unanimously recommended its repeal.
6. The second Administrative Reforms (ARC) Commission headed by the then Union Minster Mr.Veerappa Moily also unanimously recommended the repeal of the AFSPA and its replacement by a more humane law.
7. The AFSPA was first introduced by the British as an ordinance on 15th August 1942 to brutally supress the 'Quit India Movement'. After independence it was reintroduced to quell the secessionist movement in the North East.
8.The law as it stands today empowers the Government of India to extend it to any part of the country by declaring a particular area as disturbed. They don't even need the concurrence of the state governments for this.
9. Once the AFSPA is extended to any part of the country the armed forces are vested with extra ordinary powers to search, seize, challenge and shoot to kill. No act of any soldier in any area under the AFSPA can be questioned in any court of law without the prior sanction of the Indian government.
10. The AFSPA was enacted by the Indian Parliament on 11th September 1958. Since then in the North East as well as in Kashmir the Indian government has not accorded sanction for prosecution even in a single instance of encounter death or rape.
11. And the state governments are helpless in view of the central government's adamant refusal to accord sanctions for prosecution.
12. The Justice JS Verma Committee appointed by the Indian government in the wake of the infamous Delhi Rape Case (Nirbhaya case) had also recommended that the AFSPA should be amended to do away with the need for prior governmental sanction to prosecute if the rape or sexual assault is medically established.
13. But the government of India under pressure from the armed forces refused to accept this recommendation. A draconian law enacted under the pretext of preserving national integrity has in fact alienated large sections of its citizens.
14. That even 58 years after it was enacted the AFSPA has failed to bring peace and order and fully establish the writ of the Indian state across large areas of its territory is in itself a standing testimony to its uselessness in tackling the terrorists/militants.
15. There may be many here who may be misled by patriotic feelings and disagree.
16. BUT WHAT ALL OF US SHOULD ASK OURSELVES IS WHETHER WE CAN OR SHOULD CONDONE SEXUAL ASSAULT OR RAPE OF ANY WOMAN EVEN FOR THE SAKE OF OUR NATION? THOSE OF US WHO CONDONE THIS MAY ALSO CONDONE RAPE IN OTHER CIRCUMSTANCES TOO.
17. I FEEL THE ANSWER MUST BE AN EMPHATIC NO! A WOMAN'S BODY IS INVIOLABLE AND HER INVIOLABILITY MUST BE GUARANTEED BY THE INDIAN STATE.
18. If you agree with me please share this post and also write to the hon'ble Prime Minister of India on this World Human Rights Day demanding immediate amendment to the AFSPA to permit prosecution without governmental sanction in cases of medically proven sexual assaults and rapes.
19. Let it be the first step towards the eventual repeal of the AFSPA. Let the brave jawans get our salutes. And let the rouge elements face the law. The impunity to commit horrendous crimes must be crushed at any cost. A few rotten apples must not be permitted to tarnish the reputation of one of the most professional forces in the world!
