Skip to content Skip to navigation

Sharmila’s fast may not go in vain

By Daya Nath Singh |


Protest against use of Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act 1958, has shifted from extreme northeastern part of the country to the remote northern part. Now, demands are high by the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, Omar Abdullah, to withdraw at least partially, the aforesaid Act, from his state in order to bring peace in the troubled region of the country. It is alleged that in guise of the search for militants, the security personnel are misusing the Act and ‘harassing and torturing’ the innocent people of the state. The Union government is now facing an embarrassing situation due the state’s demand.


Similar demand for withdrawal of the AFSP Act1958 is long pending issue of the Manipur state in the Northeastern region. It has been brought into the notice of the Union and State governments by various intellectuals and organizations, but remained unresolved even after the lapse of eleven years.


It was on 2nd November 2000, at Melom, a small place in Manipur, where the Assam Rifles jawans killed ten innocent people, who were waiting for a bus. A number of cases of rapes, killings and arrests of innocent people, were also alleged against the security personnel under the cover of AFSPA during the search operations. In protest against the use of AFSPA, an Iron lady Irom Sharmila began indefinite hunger strike with effect from 4th November 2000, which has now entered into 12th year. According to her due to the continuance of aforesaid Act, the security men were free to misuse the same to harass and torture the innocent people of the state. The Armed men were also accused of killing innocent people, raping women and arresting a large number of people for no fault of theirs. A number of people are still not traceable, it is alleged.


Instead of looking into the demands of Irom Sharmila, the state administration resorted to the actions to end her hunger strike. She did not bow down under such pressures. Ultimately, the administration took her into custody, but the hunger strike continues. After the rape of a woman by security personnel, the fire of protests broke throughout the state. Twelve women paraded ‘naked’ on the roads in protest. Chittaranjan, a Manipuri youth set himself under fire. Thousands of men and women under a united forum of 32 organizations jumped into the agitation against the ‘Black Law’ defying curfew and demanding establishment of human rights.


Paying due support to the fast of Irom Sharmila, the people in general, intellectuals and various organizations of other northeastern states, including Assam, came out. Even Delhi was not spared. The students of Delhi University, teachers, democratic and human right organizations and intellectuals also came out in Sharmila’s support. The issue was also taken beyond the country to other human rights organizations, but all in vain. No result has come out.


Finally, the Union government constituted a five-member enquiry commission under the chairmanship of former Supreme Court Justice B P Jiwan Reddy. The Commission suggested reviewing the Act and withdrawing AFSPA, 1958 fully. The report was already submitted to the Government on 6th June 2005. The Union government by ignoring the Reddy Commission’s suggestions continued operation of the ‘black law’ throughout the Northeastern region including Assam and Manipur. This resulted in very serious impact in the minds of the people of this region. Now, similar issues are spreading in other parts of the country. In Manipur, thousands of people came out in protest under the banner of united forum of 32 organizations. They defied the curfew orders promulgated in the area. The voice of the people was raised before various human rights organizations of the world. It is surprising, the government did not take action to carry on the suggestions of its own constituted commission’ and have continued the operation as yet. No end to ‘black law’ is in sight as yet. Now, since the demand for withdrawal of the Act is spreading in other parts also, the people of this region may wait for some result in due course.




Comments

Deepak Joshi's picture

Submitted by Deepak Joshi on Sat, 10/12/2011 - 17:25
thank you for the article. It's vary sad and unfortunate for us to have this law.

Pages

Add new comment

Random Stories

Change in Gandhi visit schedule

23 Feb 2014 - 2:27pm | AT News
Rahul Gandhi has made some changes in his visit to Assam slated for Tuesday.The AICC vice president is scheduled to land at the Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport at 10-30 in the...

Where locals fear to tread

9 Jul 2016 - 4:06pm | AT News
A nondescript hamlet in Morigaon district of Assam, of late, seems to have taken the centrestage of attraction. But only for wrong reasons. Known as Hatimuria under Mayong block in the district, the...

Uruka today: Sweet tales of bitter truth

14 Jan 2008 - 9:18am | editor
Today is Uruka. Brisk preparations are afoot in the city to celebrate the Bhugali bihu with traditional fanfare and gaiety. The common people are left worried in the face of skyrocketing price hike...

Voter slips to voters

10 Apr 2011 - 2:36pm | Benjamin Kaman
Election Commission Official distributing voter slips to voters for Assembly Election 2011 at Dudhnoi, Goalpara. This is for the first time that the commission is distributing the voter slips by its...

Other Contents by Author

Polarization of political forces in offing

It’s true there are no permanent friends and foes in the politics. Onetime foes are sometimes very much helpful to keep one’s interest fulfilled, of course on their own terms. For a long time in Assam, there were speculations about ruling Congress Party joining hands with All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF). The AIUDF chief, Badaruddin Ajmal had approached Congress Party chairperson, Sonia Gandhi and other party leaders to have an alliance in the mutual interest. But having champion’s position in the Assembly polls by making win thrice, the Assam chief minister, Tarun Gogoi was not in favor of having any link as he was not in good terms with AIUDF chief, Ajmal.Now, since the Bharatiya...

All is not well in BTAD

Bodoland Territorial Autonomous District (BTAD) is facing problems of rampant extortion from businessmen, farmers, employees and general people and kidnapping of businessmen. The business community like Hindi and Bengali speaking are largely targeted by some illusive extremist elements whose real objective is to make money for them and create terror in the area. The premier students’ organization of Bodoland, All Bodo Students Union (ABSU) through a memorandum,  has urged the Union Home Minister, Sushil Kumar Shinde to take action against ongoing acts of kidnapping, extortion and illegal taxations in the area due to failure of law and order.The workers and farmers belonging to Bodos...

Save Assam against further division

Save Assam, a voluntary organization of the state of Assam has requested the Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh to reject the ongoing demands of further dividing Assam by several organizations and get necessary amendments in the Constitution of India to include the Koch Rajbongshis, Ahom, Chutia,Moran, Matok and Tea Tribes in the list of Scheduled tribes.In a memorandum recently sent to the Prime Minister, the organization has said that since the independence of the country, Assam has been cut short several times. During the year1963, a new state namely, Nagaland came into existence by cutting a part of the state. Again during the year 1971 two other states, namely, Mizoram and Meghalaya...

Where MPs kins are beneficiaries

Out of 543 Lok Sabha and 242 Rajya Sabha members about 146 (104 and 42 respectively) are beneficiary of drawing public money through Parliamentary secretariat on account of availing services of their kin as their personal secretaries and assistants. Among them there are five Parliament members from Assam. It is reported that they are drawing rupees thirty thousand per month from parliamentary secretariat on account of their family members like father, wife, daughter etc. According to sources in parliamentary secretariat, Rajya Sabha member Bhubaneswar Kalita, Barpeta’s MP Ismail Hussain, Guwahati’s MP Bijoya Chakravorty, Nagaon’s MP Rajen Gohain and BPF MP S K Bwismuthiary are drawing all...

Changing higher educational scenario in Northeast

Higher and technical educational scenario of the Northeastern region have been drastically changing from last five years. Although facilities of world class institutions are now available in the region itself, every year a large number of students from the region fall in the trap of not only fake institutions, but also some approved institutions without required facilities because of their colorful advertisements and aggressive marketing. Thus spake M Haque, the president of North East Forum for Technical Institutions while addressing the media recently in Guwahati.The North East Forum for Technical Institutions (NEFTi) is the first of its kind initiative with an objective to work for...

Tripura tops in MGENREGA implementation

Tripura state government has put the state on top in implementation of MGENREGA scheme for the fourth time during the financial year 2012-13. The state has kept itself on the top by providing 86 workdays against the prescribed 100 days, whereas the national figure stood 39 workdays during this period. Addressing the media persons in Agartala recently, Tripura’s rural development minister, Jitendra Choudhury said that even during the years 2011-12, the state achieved the target of 86 workdays. The state of Mizoram got the second position in the country by working 69.25 workdays. The state of Tamil Nadu by achieving 51.26 days was the third and Andhra Pradesh stood fourth by providing 49.61...

Prithibi brings ‘Swadhinata’ on Women’s Day

The essence of a woman is very difficult to be comprehended as a woman is the origin of child and she is the core of the family. Unfortunately, due to the age old customs and prejudices prevalent in our society, she is made to feel inferior and gradually one perceived her to be weak. Injustice and discrimination against women started to occur and in modern times it reached an alarming rate and hence a situation arose where it became imperative to take measurers to prevent such atrocities towards women, argued a number of social activist belonging to Prithibi, an NGO for women and children on the recent Women’s Day on 8th of March 2013.Prithibi, the NGO is working for welfare of women and...

Rahul Gandhi likely to miss the bus!

The Congress Party general secretary, Rahul Gandhi, projected by his party as the future prime minister of the country, has proved to be failure for the post due to his shyness and escaping from sharing administrative responsibilities despite frequent appeals by the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh. The young and old party leaders providing encouraging support in his favor also desired that he should come at the forefront now and make the party’s future strong enough. Rahul Gandhi might be feeling uncomfortable assessing his own ability as during the earlier Assembly elections in Bihar, he was asked to campaign against the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA), but his party’s position...

Non-Dimasas demand separate council

Assam government’s dubious decisions and bias actions are giving birth to new problems for thepeaceful citizens of the state day by day. The Dimasa dominated North Cachar Hills Autonomous Councilhad earlier in the year 2008 demanded to change the name of the district after the Dimasa. The district’sNon-Dimasa people raised their voice against this demand. They formed a new platform to protest bythe name of Indigenous Peoples’ Forum (IPF).The Government of Assam bowed down before the tyrannical demand of DHD(J) to change the districtsname as Dima Hasao on March 30,2010 in the backdrop of the rupees thousand crore scam in thedistrict, said IPF General Secretary, Ngaidam...

Suspension of juvenile justice in Manipur

Asian Centre for Human Rights (ACHR) in its latest report released in Guwahati on October 22, 2012 has claimed that juvenile justice in Manipur has been suspended by the Ministry of Women and Child Development due to corruption and misuse of the resources. The Manipur government had claimed that Juvenile Justice Boards (JJBs) have been set up in all the nine districts and the Project Approval Board (PAB) for the Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS) of the WCD ministry in its 14th meeting on 22 February 2011 approved the grants for nine JJBs. However, the state government failed to establish the JJBs, the PAB in its meeting held on January 17, 2012 and the ministry had no other option...