In the immediate fall out of the recent disaster at Uttarkhand and in almost all other cases of major natural disasters across the country, it has been the Armed Forces who were called in to aid relief, rescue and evacuation work. Given the nature of the situation unfolding at Uttarkhand, the Air Force were called in with inclement weather leading to the loss of personnel involved in rescue and relief work. The role of the armed forces in face of the destruction wrought upon by natural calamities ranging from earthquakes to floods or major human related accidents like building collapses are lauded across the board. A quick scan of most media reports following natural disasters will all too clearly tell stories of valor, courage and the challenges that the forces face while going about their work. In many states of the country, the Armed Forces are hailed for their role in border road maintenance and other people related services. But cut to the North East states and the Armed Forces are not only seen and perceived as unworthy of being trusted and as interlopers acting like owners vis a vis the community or area they are posted in but themselves end up getting into actions that are not expected from them. Interestingly, many visitors coming in to the state from areas where the Army are looked upon as an agency that exists for public welfare and for extending help to civilians have often commented that the nature of the interaction that the Forces have with the locals are different as compared with the kind of reaction they mete out to other areas. Not surprising, considering that the state of Manipur along with others in the North East are considered as the ‘other’ because of cultural factors, the remoteness and ignorance of the rest of the country about the region and the vast gaps in terms of social practices and food habits. In essence, the imposition of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act that gives the Forces the leeway to be on a defensive mode while the actions following the impunity under the Act do not contribute to the general population trusting the Armed Forces or think and accept them as an agency that would help them at all.
The wise ones who decide on matters of Governing the country and putting in the Armed Forces have been stuck on sending different sections of a community, those with different backgrounds to areas of total contrast. This is done by their accounts to foster unity and as a reflection of ‘Unity in diversity’ but has been decried in various quarters as a move that does not inspire confidence to either of the two parties: the forces and the people of the area that they are posted at. If in the North East region forces are brought in from the Northern belt then a lot of forces from Mizoram and Nagaland are sent into Jharkhand and other Maoist affected areas where urban legends are spread about the forces being brutal fighters and head hunters. Such moves instead of instilling confidence all too obviously bring in mutual suspicion, distrust and enemity but the imposition of the AFSPA in the north eastern region and Jammu and Kashmir and the leeway that the Forces get away have not only led to many cases of total violations of human rights laws but also seen many instances where the civil government have been trampled upon. The incident of the state police acting upon a group of UGs trying to extort money from a petrol pump in Jiribam and the resulting actions thereafter with the Army getting involved in treading on the shoes of the police is yet another case of showing who is boss in the state which incidentally is part of a democratic country.
Whether anything concrete wi;; take place with regard to the incident is a foregone conclusion for the state has seen worse case scenarios where the armed forces have got away with their whims and fancies, including cutting off the electricity supply totally because an army camp had suffered a power cut during the occasion of Diwali. And while the state and regional media will report, debate and discuss over such instances, the lack of national media attention means that there will be no serious damage done to the image of the forces and that no checks and balances will happen.