The Iron Lady Of Manipur Poem by Asit Kumar Sanyal

Irom Chanu Sharmila,
aged 42
A civil rights and political activist
And known as iron lady of Manipur
Decided to end her fast
On 9th August of this year,
To contest assembly poll next year
As an independent candidate
And marry her Goan-British boy friend.

From Mahatma Gandhi to Anna Hazare
created a long history of hunger strike
As a tool of protest
But sharmila's 16 year long fast
caught global attention for sheer duration
And marked as
world's longest hunger strike.

Assam Rifles gunned down 10 people
Including a 60 years old woman
And 17 year old child bravery award winner
At Malom near Imphal
on 02 Nov 2000
Sharmila, the youngest of nine siblings
And grown up in Manipur
Then aged 28
began her indefinite fast
On 05 Nov 2000
the fourth day of incident
Against the misuse of AFSPA
And vows not to comb hair
Or look into a mirror
Until AFSPA is repealed.

Sharmila who is a poet too
was arrested on 9th Nov 2000
On charges of attempted suicide
And lodged in a special ward
Of a government hospital in Imphal
Her room was closed to the public
And declared as sub-jail
she was force-fed
a mixture of liquefied carbohydrates
and proteins through her nose
Several times a day.
Then subsequent release and re-arrest
Became a routine affair.

Her marathon hunger strike had put
The spotlight on AFSPA
The Amnesty described her
As prisoner of conscience.

The repeal of AFSPA still a distant dream
And Sharmila means … a frail lady
with a drip
hanging from her nose.