The Armed Forces Special Act, AFSPA initialled in 1953 is a huge burden to the North East of India, and just a vague mnemonic or at best acronym to the rest of India. I write this in the time of Anna Hazare and of late, Baba Ramdev. Both ceased to eat for a few days, in a country where half the population goes on an empty stomach to bed at night and the other half are malnourished. Recent studies have shown that India’s ‘Hunger Index’ is higher than Sub-Saharan Africa, with Bihar, M.P etc being the usual suspects.
Anyway, India got MAD and angry when these two fasted – I mean, they’re nice people, you know, “acchha” log. Whose bothered about the servant’s unmarried sister not having enough food to eat, or the famous widows of Varanasi? much less the Dalits of M.P who regularly fast for no cause at all? These are all regular everyday stuff “yaar”. Now, Anna and Baba, they fasted for a cause that they believe in – something to do with corruption. One wants a paper to work magic and erase corruption from India, the other, a billionaire with a TV network of his own, wants the billions of black money stashed away abroad by other people to be brought back to India. And so they fast….
This fast, made portly politicos move at lightning speed to the ‘fasters’. Either ways, the newspersons are on to this news and cover it at a speed faster than the speed of an Ambassador car, at least. Whether you like it or not, there it is – in your face. Anna ‘topis’, Baba’s concave sternum from a profile view, why you even have Anna as a guest editor for a day!! The next guest editor, by the way, was Yuvraj Singh, a 29 year old who makes a pretty decent living by throwing balls, chasing balls, catching balls and last but not the least, whacking balls as best he can.
I’m not trying to make light of what all these stalwarts are doing. I adored Yuvraj at the World Cup. But to another person, and factually, he is just that – a guy who plays around with a small ball. How light these fasts seem when you have been fasting for TEN years. The newspapers make a hue and cry when even as I write, Baba is on his 6th day of fasting. The government is actually nervous and Anna politely and truthfully says that the Government would’ve collapsed if he had not ended his fast at Jantar Mantar.
And yet, no one gives a damn when Irom Sharmilla has been force fed for TEN long years. The same government jumps up when DMK stalwart Karunanidhi ‘fasted’ between breakfast and lunch for the Tamils in Sri Lanka. When people fast from Delhi to Tamil Nadu, from the North and South of India, it makes a difference. But when a helpless lady from the North east fasts for ten years, no one cares. Why??? I’m not saying that whatever she believes in is right, but just ignoring it is cruel and inhuman beyond description.
Is her life cheaper than theirs? Is the North East blood cheaper than the rest of India’s?
Is blood spilt in the Nort East of no consequence, while even a hint of blood ‘threatened’ to be spilt elsewhere is of urgent consequence??
11/6/11
