Supreme Court stalling action on FIR against Army officer is a victory for national security

It may have been a coincidence but it was a very apt one that the Supreme Court on Monday stalled further investigation against Major Aditya Kumar, accused of murder because he was the commanding officer of an Indian Army detachment which fired at a mob of stone pelters that had surrounded it in Shopian in the Kashmir Valley, on a day that Indian Army-led security forces eliminated Jaish-e-Muhammad commander Mufti Waqas who was suspected to be the mastermind of the recent major terror attack on the Sunjwan Army Camp near Jammu as well as that of a jehadi ambush of a CRPF team over the new year in which five paramilitary personnel lost their lives. The Indian Army, which has had to over the past two decades despite its reservations accept an internal security role in the national interest, has clearly been gaining ascendency in Jammu and Kashmir since 2015. And with the Indian legal system, at its highest level, now sending out an unambiguous signal that army personnel cannot be treated as “common criminals” as the State Government sought to do in the Shopian firing case, the false narrative of parity between armed action of state instrumentalities and the violence/terrorism which is perpetrated by non-state actors pushed assiduously by malcontents with no little or no stake in a unified, democratic India has been severely undermined.

It is not as if the Supreme Court directions on Monday stopping the probe by Jammu and Kashmir Police till April 24 when it will decide whether the State Police was correct in lodging an FIR against Army personnel knowing fully well that such an action required sanction under the Armed Forces Special Protection Act (AFSPA) will restrain those politicians and civil society groups with a deeply imbued separatist and/or separateness agenda from continuing their assault on the idea of One India. In fact, late evening on Sunday in Shopian itself, when the Army took out two Lashkar-e-Tayyeba terrorists and their four suspected accomplices in a shoot-out, the Indian Army spokesperson in Srinagar clarified that the four accomplices were Over Ground Workers (OGWs) of the terror outfit. But that did not stop Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti from mourning the deaths of the “four civilians who were killed in cross-fire”.

Now, apologists for Mufti and her ilk of Valley politicians including the cynical and motivated by self-interest Abdullah family will try and defend her position as necessary to assuage the feelings of local population et.al., given the alleged ‘sensitivities’ involved. That’s a load of hogwash. Unless Valley politicians find the spine, or are read out the riot act by the Centre to make a choice between being simpatico to terror or loyal to the interests of India and her sovereign, the people, which includes all bonafide residents of the State of Jammu & Kashmir, this pandering will only help in prolonging the war and deepening the disconnect between the Muslim population of the Valley and the rest of India. The Indian Army, cannot be expected to suffer casualties and opprobrium indefinitely waiting for those elected to integrate and unify India whilst promoting diversity get their act together.

Courtesy: Pioneer: Wednesday, 07 March 2018