Manipur civil rights activist, Irom Sharmila Chanu, 42, who has been on one of the longest hunger strikes ever demanding repeal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act 1958 (AFSPA) has written an open letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi demanding ‘right to life’.

“At my personal level… your becoming the Prime Minster of India was also envisioned in my dreams, nearly 5 years back in 2009, when I saw you standing few metres apart right in front of me with a smile. I waited for this day to see you in that position, today. It has been dream fulfilling for me also,” says Sharmila in a letter released by the Asian Human Rights Commission.

Sharmila said she was counting the days of her freedom with the repeal of AFSPA, 1958 with Modi’s efforts in Parliament. “So, do be the omnipotent leader who eventually breaks my fast of 14 years by repealing the Act. You’ll be blessed by the souls of those innocent people who are no more and millions of young people like me… and liberate our souls from the body that enjoy No Right to Life guaranteed under the Constitution of the country,” she says.

Drawing a parallel with “enlightened emperor Asoka of Kalinga, who after witnessing the huge devastation with heaves of deaths and lamentations that prevailed over the whole land as a consequence of historic battles,” she urged Modi to "rule your nation with the weapon of Ahimsa so that you may reap only with peace and love" and “allay the fears of anti-Modi groups since the incidents of Godhra in 2002 and transform them into your beloved friends for a peaceful and vibrant society.”

The letter draws the Prime Minister’s attention to “the injustice meted out by Parliament of India,” and asks him why the North-East was being treated differently from the rest of people in different states of India at large by declaring the region as disturbed area.

“Under the disturbed areas status the State has exploited our tourism industry by restricting any tourist from abroad which should provide us large income in exchange of our traditional manual products with which we would also expand our knowledge and horizons from such interactions with advanced countries of the world,” says the letter.

Sharmila adds that “upholding AFSPA in the North East States of India and the state of Jammu and Kashmir has only been helpful in begetting more and more insurgent parties in the long run,” adding that the only solution to the liberation or separation movements in the North-East would come about by changing the mindset of the mainstream masses and power holders in politics at large to stop discrimination of those with Mongoloid features.

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