Irom Sharmila, fasting for the past 11 years for the repeal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (isolate), must “reach out to people across the country” that anti-corruption activist Anna Hazare to get her to cause known, says former Union Home Secretary GK Pillai.
Isolate allows security forces to shoot on sight and arrest anyone without warrant if an area is declared disturbed. Sharmila is currently in an isolated room in Manipur is Jawaharlal Nehru Hospital.
Christened the “Iron Lady of Manipur ‘, began Sharmila her quickly on 2 November 2000, after witnessing the deaths of 10 people from the army at a bus stop near her home. Now about 40, was arrested Sharmila shortly after starting her protest – charged with suicide attempts? She was sent to a prison hospital in Imphal which began a daily routine of being force-fed through a nasal drip.
“She (Sharmila) is to reach out to people across the country. She has to say why she is on fast,” says Pillai. Manipur is home to 2.4 million people and around 19 separatist groups that have claims of autonomy to independence. It is estimated that 10,000 people have been killed in the last two decades of violence.
Earlier today, said former Union Home Secretary GK Pillai that Sharmila has to “reach out to people across the country” as Hazare to get her to cause known.
“It is a question of how to reach people. Isolate applies only in Jammu and Kashmir and the northeastern states. Corruption is random people everywhere, and that’s why Anna Hazare had a high moral ground,” Pillai said.