IMPHAL, Aug 9: As announced earlier, Irom Chanu Sharmila ended her world’s longest hunger strike that spanned around 16 years today.
An emotional Sharmila tasted a drop of honey with her left hand to mark the symbolic end of her fasting before a huge number of media persons at 4.25 pm.
She then announced that she would contest the State Assembly election in Chief Minister Okram Ibobi’s Thoubal Assembly segment.
Sharmila broke her fast three hours after she was released on bail by Chief Judicial Magistrate, Imphal West after furnishing a PR bond of Rs 10,000.
She was officially released from JNIMS security ward after the arrival of Imphal Central Jail SP and Imphal East SP there at around 4 pm.
Soon after her release, Sharmila addressed a huge number of State and National media persons at the hospital. The anti-AFSPA crusader announced that she would no longer continue her hunger strike from today.
She said that she has been staging indefinite hunger strike demanding repeal of the black law from November 2000, a few days after an incident which is infamously referred to as the Malom massacre.
However, the Government has not relented despite my 16 years long fast, she said.
As such, she has to change the course of her anti-AFSPA campaign as it is very important for her to achieve the goal during her lifetime, Sharmila observed.
Inside the JNIMS security ward, she felt that she was trapped in a ‘chakravyu’, Sharmila said.
She said that she would fight the election in Chief Minister Okram Ibobi’s Constituency, and added that the first and foremost thing that she would do if she becomes the Chief Minister of Manipur is repeal of AFSPA.
Saying that people think that politics is a dirty game in Manipuri society, Sharmila said it is not possible for the politicians to play this dirty game if the people stand against such practice.
She said that if people elect 20 independent candidates who support her cause, people would be able to see a new Government, which can be bring positive changes in the State, Sharmila said.
She said that the present Government does not listen to the people’s voice although India is known as a democratic country.
Sharmila said that she would neither return home nor meet her mother as she is still continuing her movement against the draconian AFSPA.
She said that she has not ended her struggle against AFSPA by breaking her fast but changed the course of her movement.
Before she broke her fast, she held some honey in her right hand and cried for around 5 minutes.
She then tasted it with her left hand at around 4.25 pm. After she broke her fast, she said that she needs power to remove AFSPA from the State. There is no democracy in Manipur and politics has become so dirty here, she said.
Unfortunately, people in Manipur are dirty and corrupt. They will defeat you very badly in elections. I can predict that right now. There are two issues with the people of Manipur – lazy and ambitious. Of course, we are people without much opportunities and guidance. But given an opportunity, we will always try the easy way and easy ways are always corrupt and dirty.
Please also note that you cannot defeat Ibobi in Thoubal constituency. I’m from Thoubal. I know for a fact that we were always called the “lawai macha”. We were truly lawai macha, easily manipulated and fooled by the Imphal people. There is a good reason why Ibobi was accepted as our representative. He could beat the Imphal macha and become the CM, he could siphone off some of the money towards the lawai lam development which otherwise always went to the Imphal macha. This bitterness has ruled our minds for years. Think of it… D.M.College had a woman principal in 1990s while my aunts, just 20 km away from Imphal, were not even educated. Such was the gap and divide in Manipur.
We do know that every politician in Manipur is corrupt. But do you also know that almost every Manipuri is corrupt? Unless we change ourselves, you are doomed to fail.