Indian Army Constitutes A Human Rights Cell
Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.
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By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2021-01-02 06:51:20
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Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.
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In a welcome decision, the Indian army has constituted a human rights cell to be headed by a Major General to look into charges of human rights violation by officers and jawans. Very soon, a vigilance cell will also be constituted. Together, these two cells will take forward the Army's commitment for probity and transparency. This is a part of the bigger restructuring that is going on at the Army headquarters to make the unit more responsive and modern.
Major General Gautam Chauhan of the Gorkha Rifles has taken charge as the first additional director general, human rights (ADG(HR)) at Army headquarters in New Delhi. Reporting directly to the Army vice-chief, the office of the ADG(HR) will be the nodal point to examine all human rights violation reports. An IPS officer of the rank of SSP/SP will be deputed to his office to help in the investigations and coordinate with the home ministry and other agencies.
There have been hundreds of reports of human rights violation in the past by officers and jawans in areas where the Army is called for duty backed by the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA). Since AFSPA gives sweeping powers to the armed forces (though tempered by the dos and don'ts of the Chief of the Army Staff [COAS] as approved by the Supreme Court), some officers and jawans indulge in excesses which gives the Army a bad name. It also defeats the purpose of having the Army as protectors of the population in areas infected by insurgency, as the general population starts treating them as occupying forces (as happened in J&K and the North-East) and starts helping the insurgents.
Coming close on the heels of the excellent way the Army handled the Amshipora fake encounter case in J&K this development will go a long way in both making the officers and jawans more responsible and making the Army more responsive. That will be a sea change from the Army's attitude in the past when it used to protect its men and treated all allegations of human rights violations as a conspiracy of activists to give it a bad name. The Army is doing a wonderful job of maintaining security in hotspots like the J&K. Hence, it is imperative that it operates in a fair manner with transparency and is also seen to be doing so.
pic courtesy: dnaindia
