Since nothing much came out of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s June 7 visit to Kashmir, a few days after his return, an article appeared in the national media released by the government news agency PTI that the government is considering review of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act. According to the report, a draft note has been circulated to the law and defence ministries for their comments following which the issue will be taken up by the Cabinet Committee on Security. Interestingly, without attributing any sources, the report underlined UPA government’s commitment to ‘fulfill the assurance made by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in carrying out a thorough review of the AFSPA and making it more humane.’

What gave away the report as nothing but an exercise in image management by government spin-doctors was its timing. The Valley was in throes of the fake encounter scandal in which two army officers have been implicated. While one has been removed from command, the other is under suspension pending an enquiry. In addition to that, after a brief lull, the youngsters in the Valley are once again on the streets indulging in pitched battles with the police and the CRPF. Given this surcharged atmosphere, clearly Prime Minister Singh was under pressure to make some conciliatory noises. So while he refrained from openly rapping the army for human rights violations during his visit, he did not heap unqualified praise on them either. And once back, the story on the review of AFSPA was planted.

It was a mild replay of 2004, when after the outrage that followed the death of Manorama Devi in Manipur, government appointed a five-member committee under retired Justice B.P. Jeevan Reddy to review whether there was a need to bring about certain amendments to the Act or could it be dispensed with completely and replaced by something more humane. The committee had four other members: a former jurist S.B. Nakade, former special secretary to the ministry of home affairs, P. Shrivastav, former director general military operations Lt Gen. V.R. Raghavan and journalist Sanjoy Hazarika. The team travelled through the Northeastern states as well as Kashmir to get a cross-section of views on the Act.