The much-maligned Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act is a necessary evil in specific situations. Therefore, its revocation from a particular location officially notified as a disturbed area is a happy sign. It signifies that the reasons for which a measure such as AFSPA was imposed have ceased to exist, and that civil authority alone is henceforth capable of dealing with matters like public order and internal security.
Handing over more than the normal powers to the uniformed forces can be fraught with risks, as we have seen in Jammu and Kashmir and several states of the Northeast. Human rights violations can occur when AFSPA is in operation as the security forces are not answerable to civilian authority in the ordinary sense. The revocation of AFSPA from Tripura by the Left Front government of Manek Sarkar is therefore to be welcomed. However, this does not mean that this particular legislation should automatically be taken down in Jammu and Kashmir too, as some have demanded.
Since the role of the military is to deal with enemy troops on the frontier, the armed forces need the necessary protection of the law when deployed at home in a “disturbed area” — in situations in which foreign agents may be operating in civilian guise. Like the police needs the magistracy to give it legal cover when it must take recourse to using firearms against the civilian population in extraordinary situations, the Army too must necessarily have legal sanction when it uses force in a disturbed area. AFSPA provides that cover.
