Kaga Bhushundi Speaketh
Suman K Sharma
Irom Chanu Sharmila has been rearrested and taken to a hospital of Manipur, to be force-fed through a nasal tube. A 42-year old social activist from Manipur, Sharmila has been on hunger strike ever since 2 November 2000, when 10 civilians, waiting for a bus in a Manipur town of Malom were killed allegedly by a para-military force, the Assam Rifles. A court in Imphal had ordered on 19 August, 2014 for her release from custody, observing that the prosecution had failed to prove that Sharmila intended to commit suicide. Set free, she resumed her fast and was arrested again by Manipur police three days later. Why has Sharmila forsaken food – and with it her liberty, in fact, everything that matters to an average person?
‘You won’t understand, son, you are too self-centered a man!’ This was a gibe from who else but dear old Kaga Bhushundi ji.
‘Kaga ji, I am not going to live forever like you. It is one short life that I have got to fulfil my desires, gratify my urges, meet my aspirations….’
‘My desires, my urges, my aspirations….” You need to come out of yourself sometimes and look around you. This Sharmila girl too has only one life to live. Her people fondly call her ‘Mengoubi’ – the fair one. When the trial judge asked her why she wanted to kill herself with her prolonged fasting, she said, “I love life. I love life. I don’t want to take my life. What I want is justice and peace, I am protesting against AFSPA. If AFSPA is repealed I will take food again.” The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 (AFSPA) gives powers to the security personnel to use force even to the extent of causing death, arrest without a warrant, destroy shelters, camps, structures, arms dumps, enter and search without a warrant in a disturbed area. Security officials exercising AFSPA have freedom from acts committed while on duty.’
‘There must be good reasons, Kaga ji, for the Union government to have applied AFSPA in certain areas. I think it is operated for a short duration.’
‘Son, I agree that Bharat sarkar is bound by the lakshman-rekha drawn by the Constitution. I also know that all laws are framed with best intentions for the welfare, safety and security of the people. But it is the application on ground that matters. AFSPA is enforceable for six months, but it can be extended many times over on review. The Act lays down strict parameters within which to work, but who can save helpless people from the passion of the moment, the lust and the vindictiveness of the persons who have the might of the State behind them? Not the local police and neither the courts. If inquiries on alleged excesses are conducted, it is the security forces who conduct them. I am told even an army havaldar can open fire in the areas under AFSPA….’
‘Kaga ji, cool down. It does not behove an all-seeing, all-knowing creature like you to get carried away by the cant of all those arm-chair human rights activities and self-proclaimed sympathizers of Sharmila and her ilk. Let’s look the imaginary demon in the face. Do you expect a luckless NCO to first call his CO to seek permission to counter-fire at a band of militants who are bent upon eliminating him and his men? Extremists and their cohorts bring matters to such a boil that the local police fail to maintain law and order in the area. What do you do then? You call the army or a para-military force. But why should a person, sworn to fight the enemy, do someone else’s dirty job unless he is given legal protection? You talk of excesses committed by security personnel. What about the rampage let loose by terrorists and mischief-mongers of all shades of gray and the goriest red? They hold entire populations to ransom, collect taxes to fill their own pockets; wreck a state’s development, cornering for themselves contracts of public works and indulge in smuggling of contraband drugs. What state worth its name would allow such a self-seeking and secessionist lot to carry on with its nefarious deeds?’
‘You are a hard-hearted man. Think of the misery of the common people who find themselves being crushed between millstones of the security forces on the one hand and the militants on the other. It is for these people that Sharmila has chosen to suffer voluntarily.’
‘That’s the problem. Those who have made terrorism and disruptive activities their livelihood – and even a source of personal profit – won’t mend their ways; and how can the government listen to the people like Sharmila while the turmoil goes on? When will this end, Kaga ji?’
‘I wonder, son.’
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