Welcome Mr. Amit Shah; we hope you understand our problem
- Imphal Times Editorial :: September 15 2016 -

Welcome Mr. Amit Shah. Your party is in power at the Centre and we are hopeful that your party’s popularity spread far and wide across the country and hope your visit to Manipur will be a blessing rather than a scourge.

We expect your sincere concern for the people of this state who are being treated as second class citizens in free India after the draconian Armed Forces Special Powers Act- 1958 (AFSPA) has been imposed in the region since the early 1980s.

It is a matter of records, that evidences of heinous incidents perpetrated against the public in the state for as long as one would care to recollect had already shown how inhumane the act is which had slaughtered, forcibly made to disappear and rendered multitudes of youths to physically remain handicapped for the rest of their lives.

The story does not end with such inhuman excess, unfortunately, committed under the draconian legislation, but it is also worth reminding that because of the killings and atrocities many women are left to lead their lives as widows and many more children are left orphaned.

The society has been adversely affected after AFSPA came into force in the state and your government have every details of the crimes being carried out under the shadow of this dreaded inhuman and barbaric legislation which empower security forces to act on mere suspicion.

It might perhaps prove to be a waste of time to remind you yet again how the act has been used by some vested interested individuals in the security force as a tool to eliminate any person on their will, but we need to give it a try anyway.

There are many instances of the kind, but one thing worth drawing your attention is the killing of 11 person including women and a child bravery award winner at Malom Keithel in Bishnupur district back in 2000.

It was the shocking incident that compelled a Manipuri lady Irom Chanu Sharimila to undergo a fast unto death protest for repeal of the act.

Don’t know whether it should be termed as a blessing or loss of credibility to the Indian nation as the preferred means of protest resorted to by the Father of the nation to such pathbreaking effect seem to lost its impact, and by blessing, it is only to mean that your visit is timely as the AFSPA crusader had stopped using the weapon use by Mahatama Gandhi and have decided to follow people like you.

Mr. Amit Shah, in this 21st century when India began dreaming of becoming the most powerful nation in the world, when India is aiming to take a leadership role in the world politics, it is time that your kind self ponders upon whether it is right to impose a draconian act to rule a group of people which looks, feels and acts differently from those of mainland India.

By imposing AFSPA India now have two classes of citizens – one citizen with complete freedom as well as the right to remedial measures against state excesses, and the other citizen who were deprived of living a free life and without the guarantee of even the most basic rights such as the right to representation in a law court.

Mr Amit Shah, it is also worth mentioning that the ASFPA that we at Imphal Times is bringing to your notice has been universally acknowledged as an “inhumane Act”.

Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi had in his heart throbbing speech delivered at Madison Square Garden in New York promised that his government will scrape all outdated laws.

AFSPA is no doubt an outdated law used by the British Colonial regime to suppress the Indian Freedom struggle.

The contents of the ordinance, now legislation is suppressive, inhuman and unbearable. If our great country India is targeting and aiming to become the one time Britain of 18th Century and consider Manipur as a colony than imposition of AFSPA may be justified.

Then the true picture will be known by not only the people of Manipur but also by all the people across the globe.

If the army is the cause for the government’s reluctance to repeal the outdated draconian act, then why the discrimination by imposing it in only certain parts of the country?

The world knows the kind of violent activism in Naxal hit areas of Northern and Southern India. Why AFSPA is not imposed in such states?

It is on record that a Central government Minister had once stated that AFSPA cannot be imposed in Northern and Southern Naxal hit areas as we cannot kill our own people.

If the government knows that AFSPA is to kill people why impose here in Manipur and at few other states?

Is it the hidden agenda of the India government to kill all the people of certain states utilizing AFSPA as a tool?

If your visit to the state is to be seen as one to inspect and look after the welfare of the people and not just to shore up the numbers of supporters of your political party, the public need an irrefutable evidence by repealing AFSPA from Manipur.