The statement by Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs is significant and perhaps presages some important political developments in the state. In a late night, hurriedly called press conference on Sunday the minister stated the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) stationed in the state was in ‘defiance of the orders of the State Chief Minister killing ‘innocent civilians’. The Chief Minister is head of the Unified Command, a superstructure set up in 1993 for ‘ensuring coordination in counter insurgency operations.’ The command besides some top officers from the state administration includes heads of all the forces that is army, paramilitary troops, different central intelligence agencies, state police and state intelligence agencies operating in the state. The decisions taken in the command are to be binding for all the forces operating in the state. Besides this the state chief minister is also home minister and that makes him more responsible. Law and order being a state subject notwithstanding the administrative control of the central forces, they are under the command and control of the state Home Department for operational purposes. The statement made by the Law Minister in clear terms indicates that the CRPF has been in denial of recognizing the state government and has been operating on its own. The minister made many points that speak about the incapacity of the state government to protect the citizens of the state from the troops that it believes have lost ‘command and control.’ On Sunday evening, without much of a provocation another teenager was killed by the troops in Sopore town thus raising the number of killed in a series to five. The state government in its bid to restore normalcy had detained all the voices of dissent, slapped Public Safety Act on all major opposition leaders. But despite all these harsher measures of throttling the voice of opposition the situation in the state has been getting out of control. The non-cooperation by the CRPF has placed the state government in a quandary and it seems having reached to its wits in dealing with the predicament.  The minister in many words manifested the helplessness of the state government in stopping killing of innocent youth and reining in the central force when he pleaded that ‘New Delhi will have to listen to us if it has to protect its interests in Jammu and Kashmir. The state was not ready to tolerate these human rights violations.’ Calling firing by the CRPF on a crowd of slogan shouting youth as ‘unwarranted he said this was adding alienation amongst the people. It was waging a war against our own people that no government can afford. The unjustified firing was sending wrong messages.’

The denial of the CRPF to abide by the clear cut direction by the Chief Minister cannot be viewed in isolation of the statements first made by the corp. commander of the Northern Command and the Chief of Army Staff about the AFSPA and the state leadership. It is unbecoming of officers of the Indian Army to make political statements and target the political leadership. Indian Army compared to many other armies in South Asia has had the distinction of not getting embroiled in politics. These developments ostensibly cast doubts over the intentions of the government at centre about the coalition government in the state.

 It seems, by all stretch of imagination panic has gripped the state administration. It has been out of panic that the Chief Minister has called upon the union Home Minister P Chidambaram to visit Kashmir to “rein in” paramilitary CRPF which was ‘defying his orders and killing civilians.” The Chief Minister needed not to have sought intervention from the Union Home Minister but instead acted on his own. One could understand the state government cannot withdraw AFSPA on its own, it can only pass a resolution in the state Assembly demanding its withdrawal that could be binding on New Delhi but law and order being the state subject, and it is prerogative of the state government to retain any of the paramilitary forces in the state. The state chief minister can order immediate withdrawal of the CRPF from active duty and in their place post the Kashmir Armed Police. In its own interest it needs to do so. 

Lastupdate on : Mon, 28 Jun 2010 21:30:00 Mecca time
Lastupdate on : Mon, 28 Jun 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Tue, 29 Jun 2010 00:00:00 IST