Irom Sharmila ends her 16-year fast, says wants to be Manipur Chief Minister

Sixteen years after she started a hunger strike to repeal AFSPA from the state, Irom Sharmila Chanu, popularly known as the Iron Lady of Manipur, Tuesday became a free woman.

Sitting in the courtyard outside the special ward of Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences (JNIMS), where she has lived as an undertrial prisoner this entire time, Sharmila took a dab of honey to end her fast at 4.25 pm.

But the day ended on a bitter note, with residents of a colony where she had gone to stay turning her away, and a temple reportedly refusing to take responsibility for her.
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At a press conference during the day, Sharmila said, “My love life is my personal life. That is my right to choose. It is only natural. I have ended my fast today because I want power, I want to be able to have the power to repeal AFSPA from Manipur. I want to become the Chief Minister of Manipur to be able to do this.”

Breaking her fast in front of national and international media, Sharmila was handed a 100 ml bottle of Dabur honey by her attending doctor. The honey was put in her right hand, which had begun to tremble. She stared at it for some time, before breaking down.

Weeping inconsolably, Sharmila bent her head twice to taste the honey, but was unable to do so. Then, with her left index finger, she took a dab and tasted it. She cringed, then said, “I will never forget the taste of that.”

This is the first time in 16 years that anything has passed Sharmila’s mouth. In her room at the special ward, she has been force fed through a Ryles tube. At the Cheirap court on Tuesday morning, and later when she came out for the press conference, Sharmila did not have the Ryles tube attached to her nose. Over the years, the tube, just like Sharmila, has become a symbol of Manipur’s resistance against AFSPA and the militarisation of the state. She has been force fed juices and baby food such as Cerelac through her nose.

“In Manipur, there is no real democracy. Politics is so dirty here and everyone knows it. Manipuri society is also involved in this dirtiness but no one accepts it. That’s the problem. I am not restricted to this state or nation. I am the embodiment of revolution. I want to become the Chief Minister so I can change society here,” said Sharmila.

Earlier in court, Sharmila had said that she wanted to contest the upcoming elections against incumbent Manipur Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh from his constituency. “I will contest as an independent candidate. If parties want to approach me, let them approach. In the meanwhile, I invite at least 20 other independent candidates to fight the elections alongside me so that together we can defeat Ibobi Singh and remove the present government,” she said. “I know nothing about politics and I have always been academically weak. But I will share my power.”
Source:-indiaexpress
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Kashmir unrest major setback for peace, says NYT, slams AFSPA

The major cause of the uprising in Kashmir is the resentment among Kashmiri youth who have come under India's security apparatus that acts against civilians with impunity, The New York Times said in an editorial on Thursday terming the current unrest as a "major setback for peace".

"Kashmir is subject to India's Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), which grants the military wide powers to arrest, shoot to kill, occupy or destroy property. The result is a culture of brutal disdain for the local population," it said, in the editorial titled "Kashmir in Crisis".

"Once again, the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir is convulsed in lethal violence pitting stone-throwing youths against armed police officers and security forces."

It said "troubling questions" about the timing and the circumstances of Hizbul commander Burhan Wani's death "remain unanswered".

"So too are questions about the apparently indiscriminate use of pellet guns. These and other questions argue for an independent investigation into the use of force by security forces, and for the reform of practices - including censorship, communications blackouts, and those allowed by AFSPA - that are unworthy of India's democracy."

"A failure to take these steps will only push more young Kashmiris into militancy, and make impossible a political solution that alone can bring an end to the desperation that has, once again, gripped the region," it added.

The killing of 22-year-old Wani, a poster boy of militancy, by security forces on July 8 triggered massive clashes across Kashmir Valley, leaving over 40 dead.

It said the "unrest is a major setback for peace in the long-troubled region claimed by both India and Pakistan, where an insurgency movement peaked in the 1990s, then waned, but never completely disappeared," NYT said.

It termed the current situation in Kashmir as a "state of siege" where mobile internet, mobile services and basic communication is banned and said it was "profoundly troubling in democratic India".
SOURCE:-buisness-standard
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