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NEW DELHI: Two Indian hunger strikers, Anna Hazare and Irom Sharmila, both used the same non-violent weapon — but one amassed nationwide support in days, the other lies on a hospital bed in obscurity.
Arrested and confined to a medical college ward in the remote, revolt-hit northeastern state of Manipur, Sharmila has been on hunger strike for more than 10 years to protest against a controversial anti-insurgency law.
Indian authorities force-feed the “Iron Lady of Manipur”, as she has been dubbed, through a plastic drip in her nose to prevent her death.
While nearly a million people thronged the New Delhi venue where social activist Hazare, 74, staged a 12-day anti-corruption fast this month, Sharmila has never experienced such a massive groundswell of support.
“My sister is the world's longest hunger striker but who cares about her and her cause?” Sharmila's brother Irom Singhajit told AFP from Manipur's capital, Imphal, 1,500 miles from New Delhi.
“Who cares about a faraway state?” he said.
Sharmila, now 39, a poet, launched her fast in November 2000, demanding repeal of the draconian Armed Forces Special Powers Act following the killing of 10 people by troops in retaliation for a militant attack.
“My sister was not fortunate enough to be able to turn her protest into a popular movement as she was arrested immediately on charges of attempted suicide,” said Singhajit.
Manipur is home to 2.5 million people and around 30 ethnic insurgent groups.
The government has dismissed appeals from Sharmila and others to end the sweeping emergency powers that human rights groups say give security forces a licence to shoot and arrest with impunity in both the northeast and in revolt-racked Indian Kashmir.
Every two weeks jail officials produce Sharmila in court to renew her judicial custody on charges of trying to kill herself. Her family members must seek court permission to visit her.
In contrast Hazare's fast ended last weekend when the national government conceded in principle to the former army truck driver's demands for tougher anti-corruption legislation.
Hazare wrote to Sharmila while he was staging his hunger strike, urging her to join the New Delhi protest.
But Sharmila wrote from her hospital bed: “I am unlucky because I cannot come to New Delhi. I am not a free Indian.”
She backed Hazare's movement against graft, but also said she wished people across India would support the fight for repeal of the emergency law.
It is a forlorn hope, according to political analysts.
“Anna's movement targets corruption, an issue spread throughout the Indian system which bothers every Indian,” said Ravi Bahl, a sociology professor at Delhi University.
He said Sharmila would have generated much more support if she and her cause had been based in a major city such as New Delhi. “He had the location advantage,” he said of Hazare.
Sharmila's fast has never generated much debate in India's national parliament because of New Delhi's indifference towards distant Manipur, which shares a border with Myanmar, said other analysts.
“The Indian government made Anna Hazare a hero but they treat Irom Sharmila like a criminal,” said Ranjan Thapa, a political analyst at the Centre for Eastern Political Research in Kolkata.
“This reflects the discrimination against northeastern states,” he said.
“Irom Sharmila lives in a fringe state and will never get to centre-stage.”
