Praveen Arimbrathodiyil blogs here

“I was the first minister to propose that either this act should be amended or repealed” – P Chidambaram about Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act 1958 or AFSPA.

“Consensus is needed for that and different political parties have different views on the issue but I am working on that,” he added.

Will he act on his own proposal?

The agencies that recommended to repeal this draconian law
include

• The Manipur Human Rights Commission
• Justice B.P. Jeevan Reddy Commission
• Administrative Reforms Commission
• UN Committee on Elimination of Racial Discrimination

But people of Manipur and other 7 North-Eastern states are still under this military rule. Manipur’s Iron Lady Irom Sharmila is on hunger strike for repealing AFSPA since 3rd November 2000.

Sharmila Irom, a young woman from the Indian state of Manipur, has not eaten for almost 10 years. She is too angry to eat, too upset, too disgusted by the violence that surrounds her, too disturbed by her helplessness to do anything about it. She is hungry for justice, not for food.

So, three times a day for the past decade, two nurses have poured a liquified mixture of vitamins, carbohydrates, proteins and laxatives into a plastic feeding-tube, which enters her nose, attached by a grubby piece of white tape. Initially this force-feeding was uncomfortable, but now she no longer feels a thing. – Andrew Buncombe, The Independent

Sharmila Irom stopped eating on 3 November 2000. The previous day, 10 people waiting for a bus at the village of Malom on the outskirts of Imphal, had been shot dead by a unit of paramilitaries belonging to the Assam Rifles.

Earlier, insurgents had attacked the paramilitaries’ base. There was nothing to suggest that any of the 10 people, aged from 18 to 60, were in any way linked to the insurgents, but the paramilitaries simply wanted revenge. It was nothing less than an execution of innocents.

Today, the bus stop has been transformed into a small memorial, sitting among the quiet rice fields and surrounded by mountains, with the names of the victims inscribed on a white block. Nimai Tsokchom, a farmer, lives in a shack opposite.

He had a fever and was lying in bed when the paramilitaries struck. “The paramilitaries came inside and I was badly beaten,” he remembers.

Sharmila, the youngest of five brothers and four sisters, was deeply disturbed by the killings. The following day she spoke with her mother, ate some food her mother had prepared and – having asked for her blessing – announced that she was launching a fast.

Sharmila had always been different to other young women, say her family. She had just two or three friends, she scorned the use of make-up and channelled much of her energy into journalism and poetry. She read the Bible, the Koran and Hindu texts. When she was born, her mother had been unable to breast-feed so one of her brothers took her to other local women with newborn children who would act as wet nurses. The deal was that the brother did the women’s chores while they fed his baby sister.

After she announced her fast, the family were unsure what would happen, but they knew they could not dissuade her. It was then that Sharmila and her mother decided they could no longer see each other.

“If I meet with her, she might lose her courage,” says Sharmila’s mother, Shakhi Devi, huddled over a steel bucket of glowing embers at the family’s simple home, less than a mile from the hospital where her daughter is detained. “So I will not meet her unless she gets her wish. I will meet her after getting our demand.”

The authorities – unsure how to respond to Sharmila’s actions – arrested her and charged her with attempted suicide, an offence for which she can only be jailed for a year. As a result, since late 2000, Sharmila has been repeatedly detained, force-fed and then set free for a day before being re-arrested.

All this time, she has not eaten or drunk a thing, nor washed her hair, which is now matted and twisted. Her fast has caused her to stop menstruating, while some reports say her internal organs have been damaged. She uses dry cotton to wipe her teeth, insistent that water will not pass her lips. Held in a shabby, peeling room that measures 20ft by 12ft, she spends her days reading books, newspapers and letters from well-wishers. She sometimes does yoga. She has made cardboard models from a kit of famous structures of the world, among them the Empire State Building and London Bridge. – Andrew Buncombe, The Independent

How to silence a silent protest?

Now Khuman Leima, president of International Manipur Mother’s Association, is on a silent strike for the same cause.

“I began my silent protest after seeking the blessings of god. If the act is repealed, I will end my silent protest. If the act is not repealed during my lifetime, I will die keeping mum,” she wrote while starting her protest.

How long can the government remain silent towards the peaceful non-violent protests?

A group of cultural activists from the State of Kerala are undertaking a peace march to Imphal to express solidarity with Irom Sharmila from May 8 2010 to May 27 2010. A 13-member team led by social activist Civic Ramachandran, writer Sara Joseph and Gandhian Suresh George started the march to mark the centenary of publication of Mahatma Gandhi’s seminal work “Hind Swaraj” that advocated Indian Home Rule in 1909. More about their stop at Pune from Sakaal TImes and at Vijayawada from The Hindu.

It now the duty of every Indian who believes in our constitution and its promise of equal justice to everyone to put pressure on this government and make it follow its own promise to repeal this draconian law real.