Tuesday 30 August 2016
Thursday 18 August 2016
Wednesday 17 August 2016
Monday 8 August 2016
Who will take the baton from Irom Sharmila?
Imagine someone who hasn't eaten a single masala dosa, porotta-beef fry, vada-paav, samosa, chhole bhature, gol-gappe or mutton biriyani for more than a decade. Irom Chanu Sharmila is for real. Across India and overseas, people know her as the Iron Lady of Manipur.
On Tuesday, Irom will end her 16-year-long fast without achieving her goal of getting the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) repealed. With that huge landmark, India will have symbolically disowned Satyagraha, the non-violent means of protest practised by Gandhi, whose name most politicians swear by even now.
Tomorrow, even if AFSPA is lifted from Kashmir or Manipur, it would be more a reaction to the stones thrown by the youth in Srinagar and not the fast observed by Irom.
Why did the State ignore Irom's fast? Why didn't her hunger strike get the attention or sympathy Anna Hazare received? After all, Irom didn't ask for secession. All she wanted was the end of a draconian law that allowed security forces to gun down 10 people waiting at a bus stop.
Middle Class India, the country's conscience keepers, for one, doesn't forgive somebody who questions the Forces. Second, the murders took place in Manipur, which is quite a distance from New Delhi. Irom tried to fix this problem by shifting her fast to the Capital but never got the sympathy Middle Class India gave Hazare later. This section has always found multi-crore corruption a sexier cause than State-sponsored killings.
Now Irom plans to emulate Arvind Kejriwal and fight elections. But will she succeed like the anti-corruption crusader did? Kejriwal had a brilliant sense of timing. He somehow always managed to strike the hammer when the iron was hot. Irom has had the hammer in her hands for a long time, the iron is probably molten by now. Quite a few of her friends and supporters are already upset with her decision to end the hunger strike. Perhaps they would have preferred her fighting elections while still on fast. Perhaps they didn't want her in the poll fray at all. Or maybe, they would have liked her to continue her fast unto death.
Or perhaps it is the naysayers' turn to go on fast.
On Tuesday, Irom will end her 16-year-long fast without achieving her goal of getting the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) repealed. With that huge landmark, India will have symbolically disowned Satyagraha, the non-violent means of protest practised by Gandhi, whose name most politicians swear by even now.
Tomorrow, even if AFSPA is lifted from Kashmir or Manipur, it would be more a reaction to the stones thrown by the youth in Srinagar and not the fast observed by Irom.
Why did the State ignore Irom's fast? Why didn't her hunger strike get the attention or sympathy Anna Hazare received? After all, Irom didn't ask for secession. All she wanted was the end of a draconian law that allowed security forces to gun down 10 people waiting at a bus stop.
Middle Class India, the country's conscience keepers, for one, doesn't forgive somebody who questions the Forces. Second, the murders took place in Manipur, which is quite a distance from New Delhi. Irom tried to fix this problem by shifting her fast to the Capital but never got the sympathy Middle Class India gave Hazare later. This section has always found multi-crore corruption a sexier cause than State-sponsored killings.
Now Irom plans to emulate Arvind Kejriwal and fight elections. But will she succeed like the anti-corruption crusader did? Kejriwal had a brilliant sense of timing. He somehow always managed to strike the hammer when the iron was hot. Irom has had the hammer in her hands for a long time, the iron is probably molten by now. Quite a few of her friends and supporters are already upset with her decision to end the hunger strike. Perhaps they would have preferred her fighting elections while still on fast. Perhaps they didn't want her in the poll fray at all. Or maybe, they would have liked her to continue her fast unto death.
Or perhaps it is the naysayers' turn to go on fast.
Saturday 6 August 2016
Wednesday 3 August 2016
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