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Editorial
Will Sharmila have a meal?
 North East has
sent twin rays of hope, and we are grateful for any ray of hope,
considering the treatment bein meted out to the Sikhs and their
concerns in India.
For a community
that has seen an aspirational struggle pushed to the margins, and
the machinations of the Indian establishment to corrupt, bad mouth,
ill-tag and then denigrate a movement where hundreds of Sikh youth
made supreme sacrifices but refused to budge from having a proactive
engagement with the community concerns, the developments in the
Nagaland Assembly show how better run movements and smart
strategizing can produce desirable results and make even a nuclear
power buckle down.
Hats off to the
brave people of Nagaland, the people's movements and the religious
and social leaders who never ditched the youth waging a struggle for
their land and identity. It is a heartening story that the Nagaland
Assembly on Nov 27 passed unanimously a resolution recognising the
underground movement and said these men and women whom the
government of India was never tired of calling insurgents or
terrorists actually “have selflessly worked, fought and sacrificed”
for the “aspirations and rights of the Naga people.” The
accompanying article on this page tells the full story of the
Resolution. Indian media that would normally have jumped at the
development and would have termed it anti-national stand of the Naga
Assembly has remained silent, but because New Delhi knew that any
understanding with the NSCN would stand halted in its tracks if the
Naga Assembly was pushed into a confrontationist mode, it gave a
clear signal to the apologists of the establishment. Hence, the
shocking silence of the media at the development which, must we
concede, is music to our ears.
But what is not
music is the silence that we have been hearing from the ruling Akali
Dal ranks and leadership for almost 15 years now. When was the last
time anyone asked Prakash Singh Badal why there is no plan to raise
a memorial to the memory of the martyrs of Operation Bluestar? Why
has the Punjab Assembly not condemned the Operation Bluestar when
the Sikh Quom was marking its 25th year? Why was a special session
of the Assembly not convened to discuss the utter apathy of the
Union Government? Now, Tarlochan Singh, an Independent MP in Rajya
Sabha, has moved a Resolution asking the Parliament to discuss and
condemn the anti-Sikh pogrom. Want to talk about delayed justice?
In this
shameless scenario emerges the soothing, halting, feeble voice of a
woman who hasn't eaten a morsel in ten years, is a bundle of bones,
lives with a plastic tube inserted in his nose and hasn't combed her
hair in months. Irom Sharmila is a picture of what she calls
"bounden duty." Unparalleled in the history of political protest
anywhere in the world, she has been fasting to shame and force the
Indian government to scrap the Armed Forces Special Powers Act under
which the security personnel have been killing, arresting, torturing
hundreds of youth. In this age of hundreds of TV channels and
unprecedented media coverage potential, the world knows little about
the woman whose response to extreme violence has been extreme peace.
How much less
violent you can be than not eating?
Every single
soul in the corridors iof power in
Delhi,
every one ith an ear to the ground in North East knows the Act is
draconian in letter, more draconian in spirit. It is not the human
rights groups but the officialdom that concedes that since it was
imposed, thousands of people have been killed by state forces in
Manipur. In just 2009, the officially admitted number stands at 265.
Human rights activists say it is above 300, which averages out at
one or two extrajudicial killings every day.
Now, some
movement is becoming visible. The AFSPA seems to be either on its
way out, or will undergo drastic amendments. We strongly urge for a
unilateral action that shows leadership and retrieves the best of a
worst situation. New Delhi must send a signal that it has shame
left. It cannot rise to the level set by Nagaland Assembly, but it
must fall too short. If AFSPA does not go lock, stock and barrel, it
will be difficult for anyone to ask Irom Sharmila to swallow a
morsel. It will wrench our souls to see her die, but it will doom us
forever to her cause die.
2
December 2009
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