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AFSPA,1958 WEAPON OF TERROR
Jagmohan Singh
 Dear
Thanzam Dolendro Singh
I write to share
with you the grief of the demise of your 32-year old sister, Thanzam
Manorama, who was suspected to be a Manipuri separatist, and who
after detention was extrajudicially killed by the personnel of the
17th Assam Rifles battalion of the Indian Army on 11 July
2004 in the Kangla district of Manipur. I would like to meet you
and personally commiserate the untimely and brutal fate of your
sister and assure you that the Sikh nation will support the cause
that is dear to you and for which your sister attained martyrdom.
I saw the movie two
times and I wept throughout. There was no holding back my tears.
When I spoke to
Sunzu, the producer of the documentary, he was full of enthusiasm
and discussed his future projects to put the Manipuri case before
the people of the world. He said that the film was a diary of
events and that his team was not keen on obtaining a censor
certificate. He was very humble about the International Jury Award
at the Melbourne International Film Festival and the International
Critics Jury Award from the International Federation of Film Critics
received during the same festival in 2006.
 I
congratulate the team of Cameraman Saikhom Ratan, Producer
Bachaspatimayum Sunzu and Director Haobam Paban Kumar for their
commendable effort. The comment of the jury that the film “is an
illuminating portrait of a community under siege and its struggle
for justice” is rightly deserved. The fact that the film was funded
by Bachaspatimayum Sunzu from his petty personal resources makes it
even more praiseworthy.
The grotesque
brutality of the Indian army in the North-east has been effectively
captured on roll. In a larger sense, it is a severe indictment of
the Indian army and the political masters who have given them
blanket powers under AFSPA –the Armed Forces Special Forces Act,
1958, not only in Manipur, but in other areas of the north-east,
Kashmir and a decade back in the Panjab too. An Act which gives
complete impunity to even low-ranking army personnel to shoot and
kill needs to be scrapped before nightfall but the Indian state is
in deep slumber.
Every frame of the
cameraman’s documentary is embedded in my memory. The daring
protests by children with bare hands, stones and catapults, the
wailing and nude protests by women, the inhuman beatings, the plight
of Irom Chanu Sharmila –who is fasting and being force-fed for the
last six years, the self-immolation of a Manipuri student -Pebam
Chittaranjan and his bold dying statement, the loud “Go back Indian
army” shouts by children and women, elderly women forced into hiding
in sewers, the empty talk of the Chief Minister of Manipur -Ibobi
Singh and Director General of the Assam Rifles -Lt. Gen. Bhupinder
Singh, –the entire imagery is enough to jostle the viewer. I was
totally jarred by the remarks of the Indian Minister of State for
Home, Prakash Jaiswal that “what has happened in the last twenty
years, I do not know, but we will do something in the next fifteen
days”. I believe that even the most die-hard “proud Indian”,
soaked in patriotism, having spent 77 minutes watching the movie
will be forced to see the other side of the spectrum.
 It
is significant that when the Manipuri government banned the local
ISTV network, because it was projecting the protests of the people,
there was hardly any mention, leave alone protests by the mainstream
media in India.
Your call to the
massive gathering organised by the umbrella body, the Apunba Lup, to
protest the beating, rape, torture and beating of your dear sister,
who used to often scold you when you questioned your family’s
poverty, should bestir the conscience of even a stone. Your
innocent and truthful talk to your people is so powerful that there
is no need for any more evidence to understand the case of the
Manipuri people and their protestations against the impugned law.
I would like to
inform you that the audience was spell bound when the documentary
was screened in Chandigarh on 8th December as part of the
Human Rights Seminar organised by the Dal Khalsa to commemorate
World Human Rights Day.
I will ask Sunzu to
send copies of this documentary to everyone who administers India,
if he has not already done this so far. Let them face reality. If
this documentary does not arouse and disturb them, then it is good
news for us. Our battle-lines are correct and rightly drawn --the
Manipuris and other ethnic nations must continue their struggle to
maintain their distinct identities.
When Onil
Kshetrimayum, the co-ordinator of Reachout apprised me that sixty
percent of the Manipuri people are Vaishnav Hindus, I wondered
whether the majority of the Hindus knew this.
The words of the
elderly Manipuri intellectual and writer, M. K. Binodini Devi, as
depicted in the movie resonate in my ears: “the one who died was a
woman, the one who is on fast is a woman and the ones who are
protesting are women”. To this I add, “The ones who are the
perpetrators are the brute rulers of India and the ones who are
silent spectators are the people of this country.”
 I
must share with you that during the pitched struggle for sovereignty
in Panjab in the last two decades, I can recall only two incidents
of uprising of Sikh women in protest. Both the instances were in
Gurdaspur. The first was when two Sikh women, Bibi Gurmeet Kaur and
Bibi Gurdev Kaur were tortured in Batala by DSP Gobind Ram and the
second during the last rites of slain insurgent activist Bhai Jugraj
Singh, also known as Toofan Singh Toofan. Perhaps, our women need
to take a lesson or two from their Manipuri counterparts.
Every one should see
this documentary. I will be urging my readers in the United States
to arrange for a special screening accompanied with a detailed
analysis of the anti-people law on which it is based. I will
request the organisers of the Spinning Wheel Film Festival in Canada
to hold a special screening next year.
This film is a
wake-up call. Whoever ignores it should sleep forever.
Consider me with
you, always.
Jagmohan Singh
(The writer is a
social, religious, health and political activist based in Ludhiana.
He may be contacted at
jsbigideas@gmail.com )
12 December, 2007
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