AFSPA is a measure of last resort available to the Union of India and the state Govts.
There are measures and stages of dealing with Armed insurgency or uprising against the state as given in the constitution and other laws.
Law and order is the state subject and at primary level they are supposed to deal with. For this the primary agency is the local police.
Failure of law and order and safety and security is the Union of India subject and they can intervene to restore the same on asking or without asking by the State Govt. This second stage is also dealt with by the police.
When the police deals with law and order problems, they are protected under various provisions of the law specially the CrPC etc.
At the last stage, when the police is not able to deal with local law and order and the administrative machinery fails, then the help of Army is sought. This means the third level of state violence is required to applied to restore the situation. It necessitates that there have to be adequate legal provisions for application of this force (Armed Forces) as also for dealing with extraordinary situation.
The final stage under the constitution is Martial Law.
Law and order is a state subject not Central. Much of the separatist insurgencies in the country were a result of the stubborn anti federal policies of successive union govts in the past.
As for the issue of failure of law and order crap and union govt subject, this entire mess is partially a result of the anti federal policies of the then union govt in 80s.Pak entered the fray by exploiting sentiments and thus militancy took of in a big way.
Militancy in Kashmir cannot be defeated one just by killing combatants. As long as there is resentment among people militancy will thrive. AFSPA and its misuse only perpetuates resentment.
Now, the questions raised before the supreme Court were that application of AFSPA in the sate by the Union under a federal structure was ultra virus. The Supreme Court a number of times has rejected many arguments regarding AFSPA.
The separatists everywhere have then resorted to politics and taking NGO / press route against AFSPA.
The biggest problem is that when the Army is in a disturbed Area but not under AFSPA, the police will arrest them for every action of theirs like in Delhi or Bhopal. Local police is local and has local interests. It will be very difficult for Army to function.
Presently, it is the IPS lobby in MHA and scarred Chidambaram (scared of IPS led CBI and other Police org due to his roles in scams) who want Police rule in J&K to have upper hand over the Army.
It is the insider treachery by MHA which is making matters worse.
It is difficult to have AFSPA is one district and remove it from the adjoining district due to operational contiguity. In J&K it a war on two fronts. There are Army areas every where. Removal of AFSPA will force the Army to fight a losing battle without adequate protection under law. The rear area battles will be worse than battles on the front. It is a question of the protection of lines of communication.
Arun Singh Commitee doctrines of fighting two fronts simultaneously will go for a six. Omar will never visit those areas where there is no AFSPA. DC and SP in those districts will be abducted in no time. Those will become Pakistani enclaves. One can never have a situation like that. J&K is very different ball game.
I sincerely hope that the greater good takes over the petty politics of Chidambaram
Who put an end to terrorism in Punjab? Army or Police?
In J&K along with Police SOG there are plenty of paras.The Army can remain in perpetuity in J&K sighting various reasons. AFSPA facilitates it in a smooth manner.
AFSPA should either be amended or removed from some areas.