Recently a senior columnist in his article on the subject observed that a frightening variant of the Adarsh housing scam may be wreaking havoc in the valley. He was alluding to the attitude of treating the Army as a holy cow in regard to extensive Human Rights violations. The most uncompromising and forceful defence of retaining AFSPA in Kashmir by some senior forces officers raises many doubts in this regard. There have been a number of scams involving defence deals from time to time. The most talked about has been the Bofors gun scam involving the Swedish long range artillery guns for the Army. The scam which involved huge pay offs continued to plague the ruling congress party for a long time as late Rajiv Gandhi too was alleged to be a part of the deal.

There have been scams regarding submarines, refurbished MIG Aircraft engines, and supply of coffins during Kargil war and so on. Most of these scams relate to heavy pay offs for facilitating placing of orders with particular firms for supply of various defence equipments. In a number of cases the facilitation has been done by both the politicians and senior forces officers. One would not really put all the blame on the senior forces officers as the real culprits are the defence equipment manufacturers. It has been observed that most of the international companies dealing in defence related items set up local offices in India which are manned by retired senior forces officers. These companies appoint these retired officers as liaison officers giving them very good pay packets as well as commissions on sales. They are also given many other perks.

These companies indulge in such mal-practices all over the world. In fact, some of these companies are also alleged to start such conflicts in sensitive areas to promote their sales to the parties in conflict! The actions of the officers involved in such scams are not only corrupt practices but depict total lack of patriotism. These sales may even jeopardise the security of the country. There are also some other continuous scams. These mostly involve the Army Supply Corps. In Leh one can buy petrol in shops which is leakage from the Army. The dry fruit rations meant for soldiers in Siachen are sold in Nubra and Leh markets! However, the recent scam unearthed in Mumbai regarding usurping the rights and privileges of the widows of the war heroes is above everything else totally immoral. There can be nothing more demeaning for a general than clandestinely taking the property meant for the widows of soldiers who had given their lives while defending the integrity of their motherland! However, these scams only involve material property. The probable scams in Kashmir as pointed out by the above mentioned columnist involve human lives!

There have been a number of instances of disappearance without trace of persons from all over the valley. A number of encounters have proved to be fake. It has been established by the investigators that these heinous acts were indulged in by some members of the security forces for getting promotions, and monetary benefits. Allegedly there are many mass graves in the vicinity of the border where supposedly foreign militants killed in encounters with the security forces have been buried. There have been a number of senseless massacres of innocent people including the one during the visit of the former US President Bill Clinton. Quite a few of these wanton acts remain unsolved even though various militant organisations have been blamed for these. In some cases, the Central Bureau of Investigation has even charge sheeted some forces officers but they are not getting central government sanction mandatory under AFSPA for trying the accused.

The most disheartening aspect is the top Army and Air Force officers publicly defending the continuation of this notorious legislation which is simply meant to absolve the security forces of entire accountability for their actions taken in the interests of “National Security”! According to the columnist mentioned earlier, “If you were a Kashmiri stone thrower or a simple apple farmer living under an inevitably violent occupation by the Indian Army, you should look at the Adarsh scam with concern, even fear. If the highest ranking officers of the Indian Army could be involved in a corrupt transaction in Mumbai, short-changing the government and the Indian taxpayer under public glare, what havoc could the lower ranking soldiers be wreaking in Kashmir, where they enjoy unbridled immunities?” This observation is really scary. Unfortunately, even though the property scam has already started rolling many political and security heads, the Human Rights scam has no takers!

The situation has been existing for last two decades. In spite of the Prime Minister’s often repeated “Zero Tolerance” mantra for Human Rights violations, nothing substantial has been done in this area. It is strange that the largest democracy in the world has a blind spot in regard to these basic rights in Kashmir. Even President Obama, not withstanding his own dirty backyards in Iraq and Afghanistan, pointed out the lackadaisical attitude of India to this issue of Human Rights though in context of Myanmar, in different world fora. An economic giant with nuclear capabilities aspiring for a role as a world policeman by securing the permanent membership of the UN Security Council cannot afford to overlook such sensitive issues. The Indian Army in an overall context is a very well disciplined force capable of defending the integrity of India against all odds. They have also served on many assignments abroad under the UN mandate. But a few black sheep have the tendency to give it a bad name and wash away all the glorious chapters.

Now that the house scam has given a jolt to one and all forcing the taking of immediate action at various levels, it is imperative that the AFSPA scam involving unbridled violations of Human Rights is also probed thoroughly. It needs to be ascertained as to why senior defence services officers are publicly and vociferously defending the retention of the said draconian legislation with the patronage of some political parties. This is more so in view of their own admission that the militancy in Kashmir has been virtually eliminated and the present movement has been universally acknowledged to be unarmed and peaceful. There is urgent necessity of ascertaining the need to retain the massive security grid in the civilian areas with no accountability for various actions of the security forces deployed all over the valley. Unless this is done, and the harassment by the security forces is halted immediately, there is no chance of the extreme alienation ending soon regardless of the visits of parliamentary teams and interlocutors!