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DR. THOKCHOM MEINYA (INNER MANIPUR): Mr. Chairman, Sir, I rise to raise a matter of urgent public importance on this auspicious day of International Women’s Day. I would like to pay my sincere and humble best wishes to all hon. women Members of this august House and to the women of the world.

          On this day, I do feel that it is significant to mention about the marathon hunger striker, Irom Chanu Sharmila, the Iron Lady of Manipur, who has been on indefinite fast for almost 16 years now. During these days, she has been nose-fed. Sharmila had been freed, she resumed fast and then she was taken into judicial custody. This is nothing new, for this is what has been happening ever since the Iron Lady decided to launch her fast, to demand the repeal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, 1958, in November, 2000. Once again Sharmila is under judicial custody and once again there is not the slightest hint that she is ready to give up her fast. Rightly so, the annual turn of events will continue. The term ‘Armed Forces Special Powers Act’ is redundant, infamous, inhuman and, most importantly, terrifying in the so-called troubled regions of Jammu and Kashmir and the North East. Insurgent activities and violence are the two fundamental premises which determine whether a particular area should be categorized as ‘disturbed’ or not.