June 4: History in the making
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: June 04, 2014 -

Apart from the fact that it is the 155th or the 156th day of the year in Gregorian calendar (depending on whether is it a leap year or not), June 4 may not be able to evoke anything of greater significance in the minds of the people in Manipur so far.

But this may change for the better.

After the charge-hearing on the case filed against human rights activist Irom Chanu Sharmila by the Manipur Police under Section 309 of Indian Penal Code (IPC) (attempt to commit suicide), was closed by the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM), Imphal East A Noutuneshwori on May 24 last, the final verdict of the case is due to be announced on June 4.

From the perusal of the arguments carried out between the State Prosecutor Th Kunjabihari and Defense Counsel Khaidem Mani during the course of hearing of the case conducted since May 13 as well as from the report submitted by the jail authorities on Sharmila’s mental and physical fitness at the insistence of the court on the last day of the charge-hearing, in all probabilities, Sharmila appears to be on the winning side.

After all, the charge-sheet filed against Sharmila by the police under Section 309 of IPC is becoming almost irrelevant since the fitness report submitted by the SP (Prisons) has clearly mentioned that Sharmila is of sound mental and physical condition and only a person with depression or mental problem could think of committing suicide, which is not the case with Sharmila.

Though the successive Governments both at the State and the Centre as well as the top leaders of Indian Army have always tried to project Sharmila and her 14-year long hunger strike as an act of defiance against the establishment, simply because she is asking for the repeal of Armed Forces Special Powers Act-1958, which grants extra-ordinary power to personnel in Armed Forces; the truth that they have conveniently overlooked all these years is that she is only asking for fulfilment of the Rights to Life guaranteed to every citizen of the country under Article 21 of Constitution of India.

But Armed Forces Special Powers Act has come in the way of enjoying the Rights to Life by the people who are unfortunately living in areas arbitrarily declared as ‘disturbed’, and Sharmila wants this Act to go away for the same people to live their life with dignity like any other citizens in other parts of the country.

So, the struggle of Sharmila, though neglected and ignored at times even by her own people, is not against the Government or the Indian Army, but for the cause of humanity as a whole.

This is the merit of the case which no law court in this wide world would be able to sideline.

So, June 4 could no longer be the 155th or the 156th day of the year in Gregorian calendar, but a historic one that brings the first ever success of Irom Chanu Sharmila in pursuing her cause legally.