Irom Sharmila’s struggle isn’t over

“I’ve decided to change the strategy of my 16-year campaign to repeal AFSPA.” Irom Sharmila Chanu made this announcement on Tuesday after she made her routine appearance in court. For the past 16 years, every fortnight, Sharmila has been taken from the room that has been her jail cell in Imphal’s Jawaharlal Institute of Medical Sciences (JIMS), and presented before the chief judicial magistrate’s court (Imphal East). There she’s asked two questions: if she’s going to continue her fast and whether she has anything to say. Her answer to the first question has been “yes” for 16 years.

Then, on July 26, 2016, the Iron Lady of Manipur dropped a bombshell. “Since India as well as Manipur follow the democratic system, I’ve come to realize that without political rights and power, the true voice of people is meaningless in a political system where votes are being purchased,” said Sharmila after her court appearance. “The trend is likely to remain unless the genuine representatives of people come forward and change the set up. Therefore I’ve decided to quit fasting, enter politics as an independent candidate on a single issue of anti-AFSPA. This will come into effect on my next court appearance.”

Most people have been cautious about their response to Irom’s decision, tempering their surprise at losing one of the most well-known faces of protest with polite acceptance that Sharmila has sacrificed enough. However, the reaction from Irom’s 64-year-old mother Irom Shakhi has been blunter. “I’m not waiting for her release from custody. Her victory is what I long to see,” said Shakhi.

Sharmila’s hunger strike began after a convoy of Assam Rifles was attacked by Manipuri rebels, and the soldiers retaliated upon civilians on November 2, 2000. Ten bystanders at a bus stop in Malom, a village in the outskirts of Imphal, were killed. Incidents like these were not unusual in Manipur at the time, but this one drove 28-year-old Irom to demand AFSPA be repealed. Within days of her hunger strike, Sharmila was arrested, charged with attempting to commit suicide under Section 309 of the Indian Penal Code, housed in the special ward of JIMS, and the nasal feeding tube was inserted.

Sharmila is now 44. Her struggle has been lonely and AFSPA is no closer to being repealed. Despite courts repeatedly saying Irom should be released, every reprieve has been marked by Irom being escorted back to her room in JIMS, even when the police can’t figure out which law she’s violated.

Dr Laifungbam Debabrata Roy, Convener of Civil Society Coalition on Human Rights in Manipur and the United Nations, said he is not surprised that Sharmila has decided to move to her fight to the political turf. “Having gone through the cycle of arrest and re-arrest for 16 years and despite the powerful nature of her struggle, finding no takers, neither in the state nor at the centre…. What do you expect Sharmila to do?” he asked.

However, Roy too is a little uncomfortable about certain aspects of Sharmila’s statement. “The people, particularly the civil societies who are supposed to be campaigning with me are more concerned of my personal affairs than to think of ways to strengthen the movement for its final goal,” Sharmila said outside court on Tuesday. “For me, I want to see AFSPA go during my lifetime and not after I die. Therefore, I have firmly decided to enter politics and fight it from within. My fiancé who is in UK will also lobby with the UN from UK to pressurise India to repeal the draconian act.”

Roy rejected her lament that people and civil societies had not supported her campaign. Although he admits there may be debates on campaign strategies, he insisted that Sharmila’s campaign enjoys massive support not only in the state but across the country and the world.

The loneliness of the struggle has been difficult for Sharmila and she’s never made secret of this. In 2006, when filmmaker Kavita Joshi asked her what she missed most, Sharmila replied, “The people. As I am a prisoner here (in hospital), everyone is restricted from meeting me without permission. So I miss people a lot.” However, for a poster girl of Manipuri protest, the standards are set high. In 2014, local women assaulted Irom’s Goan-British boyfriend Desmond Coutinho, accusing him of distracting her from the protest. Leading human rights activist and Sharmila’s mentor Babloo Loitongbotam has said in the past of the relationship, “She is blind in love. He is a good writer and could influence Sharmila’s impressionable mind.”

Now, however, Loitongbam is more understanding. “I’m a little surprised as it has come all of a sudden. But one can understand it fully,” Loitongbam told Newslaundry. “Because in the last 15 years of her hunger strike, she has achieved what can possibly be achieved out of this protest. If she has not achieved something, she will probably not achieve it in 17, 18, 19 or 20 years. As a human being she has done her utmost. She has sacrificed 16 years of the prime of her life. I think it is because of her struggle that today AFSPA has become a household term all across the country. Even a prime minister had said that it needs to be replaced by a more humane act. … She has achieved what is achievable.”

Sharmila’s eldest brother, Irom Singhajit, while reserving comment on his sister’s latest decision blamed Coutinho for the loss of public support for Irom’s campaign. “In the last few years, she has shown little consideration for public opinion about her personal life,” Singhajit told Newslaundry. “That had created a rift between her and her supporters. This could be the manifestation of the distrust. I would be closely watching what she does to win the people’s confidence to get her elected in the election.”

Sharmila’s routine next court appearance falls on August 15. The Magistrate informed that this would be brought forward to August 9 . It seems by making public her intention to quit fasting and enter electoral politics, Sharmila maybe testing waters for a future beyond the hospital room that has been her constant for the past 16 years. From her body learning to accept real food to facing the resistance of her people and the nexus of money and politics that is the electoral battle, it’s evident that even if one chapter of her struggle has ended, there’s a long and obstacle-ridden road ahead for Irom Sharmila.