Manipur moves beyond the icon Irom Sharmila

Posted on September 1, 2016 0 Comments47

Why the end of Irom Sharmila’s fast signals a new beginning for the battle against Afspa

In the summer of 2011
in Montebello, California, I met the brave Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi
from Iran. We discussed Irom Sharmila and strategies for bringing peace
to Manipur. As a woman who had seen extreme repression in her homeland,
fled from it and lived in exile, Ebadi, who had met Irom Sharmila in
Delhi, knows the struggle and sacrifice required for a life dedicated to
society. Ebadi told me: “Irom Sharmila is an icon but having an icon is
not enough. One has to work hard collectively to ensure that the
movement for removal of repressive laws such as Afspa in Manipur is
done. An icon alone cannot accomplish that.”

On 9 August, Irom Sharmila broke her legendary fast. While many
welcomed it, many in Manipur are still in shock. Shocked not just by its
end, but also with her announcement that she will contest elections,
and that she will get married. She has even expressed a desire to be
chief minister of Manipur. Only the future can tell what direction she
will go in. But as far as the people of Manipur are concerned, the
struggle for the repeal of Afspa, or the Armed Forces (Special Powers)
Act—which many call the “biggest blot on Indian democracy”—continues.

Efforts for the
repeal of Afspa started in the 1980s, when the Human Rights Forum,
Manipur, filed the first public interest litigation (PIL) challenging
its constitutionality in the Supreme Court, on 10 October 1980. This was
followed by a petition by the Naga Peoples’ Movement for Human Rights
(NPMHR) in 1997.

Following the
brutal rape and murder of Thangjam Manorama in July 2004, mothers of
Manipur staged an iconic protest in front of the Kangla Fort (the seat
of Manipuri royalty) in Imphal. The Justice BP Jeevan Reddy committee,
formed in 2005, recommended a repeal of the Act, saying “the Act…has
become a symbol of oppression, an object of hate and an instrument of
discrimination….”

This was followed
by the recommendations made by the administrative reforms commission
headed by Congress politician Veerappa Moily in 2007 and the working
group on confidence-building measures in Jammu and Kashmir headed by
Mohammad Hamid Ansari, currently the Indian vice-president, in the same
year.

In 2010, our
team at the Manipur Women Gun Survivors Network convened at the India
International Centre in Delhi, our first national consultation on the
repeal of the Act. Several policymakers and survivors congregated,
including Sinam Chandrajini, whose two sons and sister were gunned down
in the infamous Malom Massacre in November 2000. We have raised
awareness about Afspa in villages in Manipur, and across the eight
North-East states where we work, as well as in colleges and universities
across the country.

We have met
parliamentarians seeking the withdrawal of the Act. When they have been
in opposition, many “national” parties have assured us that they are
with us, but they have changed their positions when in power. We have
met several prime ministers. Nothing has changed.

The UN first
questioned the validity of Afspa in 1991, when India presented its
second periodic report to the UN human rights committee. Members asked
how Afspa could be deemed constitutional under Indian law and how it
could be justified in light of Article 4 of the International Covenant
on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). India’s attorney general argued
that Afspa was “a necessary measure to prevent the secession of the
North-Eastern states”. In 1997, the UN human rights committee again
expressed concern regarding the “climate of impunity”, for government
approval is required for legal proceedings against the defence forces
acting under Afspa.

In 2012, the UN
committee again asked India to repeal Afspa, saying it had no role to
play in a democracy. It observed that Afspa allows the state to override
rights in the disturbed areas; the right to life is suspended.
Repealing the law, said the UN committee, would “bring domestic law more
in line with international standards”. Other UN bodies that have called
for the repeal of Afspa include the committee on the elimination of
discrimination against women (Cedaw, 2007) and the committee on the
elimination of racial discrimination (Cerd, 2007).

Most recently, a stunning judgement from the Supreme Court, in July, heralded the end of impunity.

The women’s
movement in Manipur is more than 100 years old. It started with the
first Nupi Lan, or the First Women’s War of 1904, followed by the second
Nupi Lan, or the Women’s War of 1939. These were non-violent protest
movements spearheaded by Manipuri women against repressive British rule.
When Afspa was imposed in the valley areas of Manipur in 1980, Manipuri
mothers organized themselves into groups called “Meira Paibis” (women
with bamboo torches) and started patrolling streets at night.

In the past 30
years and more, Meira Paibis have made an extraordinary effort for the
repeal of Afspa, culminating in 12 mothers stripping in front of the
Kangla. This protest shook India and the world.

So it is not Irom Sharmila’s fast itself, but the repeal of Afspa that matters.

The end of her
fast, however momentous, does not herald a new era in Manipur. The fight
for the repeal of Afspa has strengthened, in fact, after she ended her
fast. Now decisions have to be taken collectively, with the involvement
of people who are affected by unjust laws. That recognizable collective
has been missing for 16 years. Now that the icon, the pedestal and the
halo have gone, a faceless and fertile mass movement can begin.

Binalakshmi
Nepram is a writer and founder of the Manipur Women Gun Survivors
Network and the secretary general of the Control Arms Foundation of
India. She tweets at @BinaNepram

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