Court martial in the Machil fake encounter

Thursday, September 10, 2015

12:23 PM

  1. Indias counter insurgency strategy in Kashmir and North east is creating more disaffectionated people towards thestate.
  2. The use of special police officers, Ikhwanis, raise of monetized counter insurgency campaign have lead to huge violation of human rights with no accountability.
  3. The number of people disappeared for these areas in their sheer number shows the institutionalised impunity.
  4. Disproportionate use of force by the state and its apparatus do not justify the democratic traditions of this country.
  5. AFSPA got huge disrepute for its blanket protection to the actions of armed forces in many of the North eastern states and Jammu and Kashmir. (Though security forces may oppose, at least sexual violence need to be removed from the list and has to be treated under the ordinary criminal law.)

Machil fake encounter involves killing of innocent youth to gain monetary incentives set for elimination of militants.

The military court awarding punishment to the culprits is in the right direction to make institutions such as Army accountable. Conflict zones and laws covering the situation and actions of Armed forces need wider discussions in India.

Supreme Court on Pathribal case -

The Supreme Court has given the army eight weeks to decide whether officers accused of a fake encounter in Pathribal in the state of Jammu and Kashmir should be tried by court-martial proceedings or by regular criminal courts. If the army chooses not to go for a court martial, the central government will have to decide within a month whether to grant sanction for the prosecution of the army officers accused in the case.

Army opted for a court martial proceedings.

Caste and the battle of secularism

The casteism in Indian society was driven by the capitalist classes. It holds the sanathana dharma as the heart of Hinduism. It goes against to the interests of the dalits.

  1. The marwars were the capitalist class of early 19th and 20th century.
  2. One, the community became an object of jealousy; two, the Marwaris underwent an identity crisis: even though they had become economically the most powerful, being Vaishyas, they did not enjoy a “commensurate social standing”. The poorer brahmins and kshatriyas stood higher.
  3. Indologist Philip Lutgendorf, cited by Mukul, terms “semi-involuntary upward mobility”. Baniyas became the new kshatriyas, “owning villages and getting kshatriya titles like Raja”
  4. They started promoting sanatana dharma through press and became the new religious patrons.
  5. It has vehemently opposed the hindu code bill, that allows the intercastemariages and supported mandir against mandal.
  6. The counter to sanathana dharma, that is based on Varna system is social empowerment and visible economic advancement of a great number of Dalits and OBCs, so that there is no basis left for a sense of caste based superiority.
  7. Indian democracy is said to have waged a strongest war till date on the sense of caste supremacy. ( democracy, however flawed, and a socially progressive Constitution, this hegemony, compared to those of the past, is more vulnerable to being challenged, and therefore weaker )

Gender parity – an Impetus

Gander parity - a welcome move

Delhi HC ruled that : it ruled that Indian Navy must grant permanent commission to women as well, ( the Army and the Air Force had to do following a 2010 order by a different bench of the same court)

Following the latest ruling, women who qualify for permanent commission will be able to work until the age of 54, as their male counterparts do.

Armed forces argument

Junior officers from rural areas would not be willing to accept a woman as a leader in front line situations, or that society was not yet willing to accept women in combat roles.

Reality

The proportion of women in India’s armed forces and the police forces is low in terms of global comparative figures, and recent research indicates that persistent bias is a strong ground that drives women away from seeking to serve in them.

India will emerge as investors choice

  1. Policy credibility - Government has taken steps on introduction of GST, provided direction on use of natural resources(mines, spectrum etc). It is also working on bankruptcy code, automation of non discretionary project approvals, relaxation of FDI limits, a framework on labour reforms etc)
  2. Stable macro economic situation - Fiscal deficit, current account deficit, inflation, forex reserves are all favorable for a better growth environment. The falling commodity, gold, oil prices may make investors to shift to promising economies such as India.
  3. Human resources
  4. Market demand

Thermal power plants

  1. Indian coal has high Sulphur and ash content with low calorific value.
  2. The commercializationof carbon capture and sequestration is still far away.
  3. So, Indiasdependency on coal will continue in the near future. So, the business as usual approach has to be replaced by optimal and efficient solutions. It means moving India away from its present sub-critical coal power plants to super-critical and ultra-super critical plants. It will reduce the coal usage at least by 15-20%.
  4. Moral concerns with Thermal plants - The new thermal plants are been built away from the cities in remote rural areas. The local population are becoming the victims for consumption by the urban areas. How to solve this?