IROM SHARMILA TO END 16-YR-LONG FAST TODAY

BREAKFAST AT LAST Sharmila may stay with her mother, who says she doesn’t know whether or not to welcome her daughter home

IMPHAL: She has a choice of seven houses plus a makeshift camp of a forum that was set up to save her. But if Irom Sharmila changes her mind and decides not to break her 16-year fast on Tuesday, her only option is going back to confinement in a hospital ward for attempt to suicide.

Sharmila, 44, began her fast on November 4, 2000, demanding the repeal of “this act (Afspa) that gives security forces the licence to kill”, two days after the Assam Rifles gunned down 10 people at Malom near state capital Imphal.

Last month, she said she wanted to lead a normal life, marry and be in electoral politics – the second innings of her fight against the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act of 1958. A local court is expected to release her on Tuesday.

Manipur, specifically the Meitei-dominated Imphal Valley, has been divided over her decision. Some want Sharmila to carry on fasting for the “greater cause” while others feel telling her what to do with her life is nobody’s business.

Many believe Sharmila will stay where her mother, 94-year-old Sakhi Devi, who she was closest to before launching the hunger strike, does. Sakhi Devi stays with Irom Singhajit, Sharmila’s elder brother, in Imphal’s Kongkham locality.

Sharmila, one of Sakhi’s four daughters, is the youngest of nine siblings.

But Sakhi does not know whether or not to welcome Sharmila home. “I am neither sad nor happy (with how things have panned out). She always sought my blessings for anything she wanted to do, like going on fast…”

Singhajit, convener of Save Sharmila Campaign, an NGO, chose not to react to her decision and denied he was under pressure to take a stand.

But he said Sharmila has a choice of seven houses of the Irom clan.

“Sharmila began her campaign when we were in our original home a kilometre away in the same locality. That house had 36 members of our extended family then but seven people stay there now,” he said.