Irom Sharmila completes 15 years of a hunger fast

A historic day went by quietly on Sunday as human rights activist from Manipur, Irom Sharmila, completed 15 years of her hunger strike against the Armed Forces Special Powers Act. The 42-year-old Manipuri started her fast in 2000, after the death of 10 Manipuris at the hands of the Assam Rifles in Imphal. Amnesty International, on Sunday said it was "15 years of the selfless and unparalleled protest".

As the speakers at the Convention to Repeal AFSPA, in New Delhi, repeatedly said, Sharmila is an ordinary woman representing people's ordinary desires, to live as equal citizens with rights and dignity. How she has carried on her protest is extraordinary said Professor Deepti Priya Mehrotra, author of Burning Bright a biography of Sharmila; she practices non-violence "philosophically" not strategically. Her's is the declaration that life cannot be lived unless the state accords an equal right to life to all its citizens, said Mehrotra.

Unfortunately, as the solemn gathering recognised, the state does not seem to listen. According to the activists these are the most peaceful times the north eastern states have seen in the recent past. However, "fractured" the Mizo Accord for peace with these groups, it has held for 30 years. Yet, as Amnesty said "despite repeated calls to withdraw the AFSPA from UN experts as well as national and international groups, the Act continues to be enforced and continues to cause flagrant human rights violations."

AS the Amnesty statement added, "the Indian government-appointed High Level Committee on the Status of Women recommended repealing AFSPA. Previously, several other government-appointed commissions have recommended repealing the law. The Justice Jeevan Reddy Committee, the Second Administrative Reforms Commission and the Prime Minister's Working Group on Confidence-Building Measures in Jammu and Kashmir have recommended the repeal of the AFSPA."

Sharmila herself, said Babloo Loitongbam, from Human Rights Alert, is living a legal and political paradox. Her fight, he said, was for the right to live. In her own words, she didn't want to die but live a full life. Yet, she has been charged with attempt to suicide and remanded to judicial custody 365 times; a "ritual" that takes place every 15 days. Loitongbam said that Sharmila wanted "people of prominence" to come to court with her to repeat her arguments.

Sociologist Nandini Sundar read out the testimonies of two anonymous students who had applied for the Irom Sharmila scholarship–for students from AFSPA affected areas–a man from Manipur, and a woman from Kashmir. Both accounts spoke of coming terrifyingly close to death at the army's hands, and its impact on one's mind. Academic Sanjoy Hazarika elaborated this psychological impact, talking about generations living with trauma and mental health problems wherever there was AFSPA. What was telling was the absolute lack of medical help available to these people.

A short film presented by the Extra Judicial Execution Victims Families' Association (EEVFAM) said that in 2012 they had present 1528 cases of killings by the armed forces in Manipur, to the Supreme Court. The apex court picked six cases at random to be investigated and found the army version to be false. The film said that since these cases reached the court, the number of extra judicial killings came down from 500 in a year to 2 in 2013. However, there is concern that if the court does not expedite the other cases, the killings could go back to their former frequency. Families and witnesses, too, need to be protected and rehabilitated, as the film showed the widow of a man slain by the army talking about the pressure the latter was putting on her to withdraw the case.

More bleakly, as Professor Ashok Agarwal and Babloo Loitongbam of the Human Right Alert questioned, were civil societies waiting for Irom Sharmila to die to make a statement of her struggle. If so, there would be "riots in Manipur" as Loitongbam put it, but as Agarwal added, it would be a collective failure of not being able to transform her sacrifice in to a "political struggle". "If this is so," said Agarwal, "then Sharmila is right in feeling there isn't enough support for her struggle."