Repeal AFSPA
''Sharmila’s political integ-rity is most uncommon.''
Irom Sharmila’s rearrest by authorities for the 10th time in the past decade indicates the Centre’s utter lack of imagination in responding to her historic non-violent struggle against the Indian State. Sharmila has been on a fast-unto-death since Nov 4, 2000, demanding the repeal of the draconian Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA). The Act under which she has been arrested for attempting suicide permits authorities to detain her for a year at the most. Hence, she is released only to be rearrested the next day. This has been the state’s standard response to her fast.
Sharmila is no ordinary activist on a hunger strike. She is an extraordinary human, whose integrity and political honesty is uncommon in the world today. It is often said that Irom Sharmila has iron in her soul and a steely determination defines her protest against the AFSPA. Compare her peaceful struggle based on moral principles to the state’s utterly unprincipled response and one understands why the country should be extending Irom Sharmila and her cause whole-hearted support.
Enacted in 1958, the AFSPA vests sweeping powers in the hands of the armed forces deployed in the northeast — in areas that have been declared ‘disturbed.’ It empowers the armed forces to arrest without warrant and to shoot at sight based on mere suspicion, as this is supposedly necessary to ‘maintain public order.’ Far from quelling the insurgency in Manipur and other parts of the northeast, the AFSPA has fuelled public anger against the state. In the name of tackling insurgency, thousands of innocent youth have been killed in so-called encounters or detained and ‘disappeared’ using the awesome powers that this legislation gives the armed forces. Government-appointed committees and independent human rights organisations have repeatedly called for AFSPA’s repeal. But the government has chosen to ignore these well-considered recommendations. It is said that the armed forces are opposed to the repeal of the AFSPA.
A couple of years ago, prime minister Manmohan Singh promised to amend some of the provisions of the AFSPA. The government has failed to fulfil even that half-hearted promise. The AFSPA violates the Indian constitution and and it is a slur on our claims to be a democracy. The AFSPA’s continuance is unconscionable. It must be repealed now.
