Looking beyond the call for free Irom Sharmila :: Welcoming the team from AII
- Sangai Express Editorial :: December 17 , 2013 -

Prisoner of conscience. Nura Temshinnabi (A rough translation in English would be Woman With Defiance).

Fasting for more than 13 years demanding the revocation of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, after the Malom massacre of more than 10 civilians on November 2, 2000.

Booked under IPC 309, the offence being attempt to commit suicide, which is unlawful in the country.

It is on these premises that a four member team of the Amnesty International, India is in town, to plead with the Government to release Irom Chanu Sharmila, for to protest is a Constitutional right.

Known for his diplomacy and articulation, Deputy Chief Minister Gaikhangam, during a meeting with the AAI team, made it clear that what the State Government is doing, that is keeping her under custody, is to protect her life.

In other words, the observation of the Deputy Chief Minister may be interpreted as saying that though under the understanding of law and the judiciary, Sharmila may be under custody, that is a prisoner in the truest sense of the term, in reality the State Government is trying to protect her life.

Clever use of words, definitely and seen from his perspectives this may carry some substance.

However, the appeal of the AII should be seen and understood beyond freeing her and allowing her to continue with her fast.

The underlying meaning, is without a doubt, a call for the revocation of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act.

A legal fiction, this is the term which the erudite Associate Professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University, Mr Bimol Akoijam has used to describe AFSPA and there is something very interesting in his observation.

An Act which empowers the security forces to open fire on mere suspicion even to the extent of causing death, this is AFSPA and this is where the ‘fiction’ point lies.

The ‘legal’ point may be understood in the backdrop of the Supreme Court upholding the Constitutionality of this Act in the Government of India versus the Naga People’s Movement for Human Rights case.

To be sure, the plea of the AII to free Sharmila would not yield any positive results, as of now, but already a significant beginning has been made, if the signature campaign launched for her cause is anything to go by.

The number may not be much, which is 16,000, in a country of 1 billion plus population, but the fact that the campaign has reached out to certain sections of the people tells a significant story.

Sure the Congress Government under Mr Ibobi did manage to revoke the Armed Forces Special Powers Act from the seven Assembly segments falling within the Imphal Municipal area, and while the State Government must have acted despite strong pressure from the Centre, the fact is, the infamous Army Act was removed during the stormy days of mid 2004, when the battered and bullet riddled body of Th Manorama was found the next day after she was picked up by a team of 17 Assam Rifles sometime in May, 2004.

Remember the revolutionary nude protest by women folk in front of Kangla which then housed the Assam Rifles.

In its conventional understanding, AFSPA is an Army Act enforced or implemented under extra-ordinary circumstances, which is universally understood within a time frame. That this Act has been in force in the whole of Manipur for over three decades is more than indicative that the situation here is not extra-ordinary, but is a political issue.

Using an Army Act to deal with a political issue runs contrary to the understanding of addressing the issue.

It is this bare fact which Delhi and Imphal should understand, in the call of the AII to free Sharmila and give her the right to protest against the continued imposition of the Act.

The interpretation of the State Government that she is being kept under custody to save her life may carry some weight, but in the ultimate analysis, it is about the continued imposition of an Act, which goes against all democratic norms and practices.

Here is welcoming the team from Amnesty International, India.