Irom Sharmila - Daughter of Peace

Since past 14 years, neither a drop of water nor a morsel of food has passed through Sharmila’s lips. Through this superhuman fast, the ‘Iron Lady’ of Manipur is demanding an end to violence in her hometown. She is determined that her fight for the repeal of the draconian act i.e. the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), will continue come whatever may. At the strong support of people, she once said, “I don’t wish people to join me in my hunger strike but instead want them to support me through their “solidarity” and “action”.”

Irom Sharmila’s inconceivable fast is for scrapping AFSPA that gives immunity to the army to use force , arrest or shoot anyone on mere suspicion that someone has committed or was about to commit a cognizable offence. The Act further prohibits any legal or judicial proceedings against the army personnel.

Sharmila’s protest was spurred by Malon massacre on November 2, 2000 in which 10 innocent people were gunned down by the personnel of Assam Rifles. The brutal and gory pictures of bodies flushed the local newspapers which includes a 62-year-old woman and a teenager who was a 1998 National Child Bravery Award winner.

A news report came once, “Two school boys of class 10 and 7 were killed by Army as they suspected the kids as terrorists.” This case did not have any trial but there was a pall of gloom in the homes of the two innocent souls!

One famous incident is the Kunan village incident (1990s) of Kashmir in which the army raped the whole village. They spared none and yet no trial has taken place till now. Thanks to AFSPA!!

A few years ago, an unedited CD came in spotlight which showed footage of humiliating army brutality and public rage. All and sundry were tear gassed and shot at. Most of the crimes of the Indian Army don’t even feature in media. They have been killing innocent, unarmed citizens, raping women and children in the backdrop of the controversial law.

The “world’s longest hunger striker”, Irom Sharmila, is no ordinary activist with some bizarre craze for fasting on day to day issues. She is the ‘daughter of peace’ and her cause is bonafide.

Sharmila often refers her epic fast as a spiritual act for her stand against AFSPA is for the sake of truth. Gautam Buddha frequently observed long fasts. Many other religions like Islam, Christianity, Buddhism and Hinduism too enjoin fasting. Gandhi ji’s numerous fasts during the freedom struggle aimed at changing the heart of the opponent. Following his footsteps, the ‘Iron Lady’ too aims at altering the hearts and minds of the people, including those who wield power.

The ‘eternal’ fast of Sharmila has been given the name of an ‘attempted suicide’ by the government of India. So, consequently, she is forcibly fed through a tube attached to her nose to keep her from dying. Every time she is produced before the court and sentenced to confinement for ‘attempt to commit suicide’.

Even during the freedom struggle, the British never slapped Gandhi ji’s fasts with the charge of suicidal attempts. Potti Sreeramulu, a freedom fighter and Gandhian, fasted to death in seeking the creation of a separate state of Andhra Pradesh but was never considered suicidal by the government for his fatal hunger strike. The Narmada Bachao Andolan movement as well witnessed hunger strikes in 2002. More recently, Anna Hazare and his associates carried on hunger strikes against corruption. All these instances are quite sufficient to view the legality of strikes in India.

Well! The moot point is ‘repeal of AFSPA’. Probably, very few people know that AFSPA is a mutation of the Armed Forces Special Powers Ordinance, widely known by the British government in 1942 to suppress the Quit India Movement.

Surely when Indians fought against the British, they did not visualize a future when India would treat its vulnerable and marginal sections in the same manner as their former masters did!