Mr. President, treat us with no difference from other Indians

Welcome Mr. President. We expect your sincere concern for the people of this state whom are being treated as second class citizen in free India after the draconian Armed Forces Special Powers Act- 1958 (AFSPA) has been imposed in the region since early 1980s. It is a matter of records, that evidences and heinous incidents which were reported to your Hon’ble office had already shown how inhumane is the act which had slaughtered, forcible made disappeared and turned many youths to physically remain handicapped for the rest of their life.
The story does not end with the kind of inhuman excess committed under the draconian legislation, but it is also worth remembering that because of the killing and atrocities many women are left to live life of a widow and many children are left as orphan.
The society has been greatly affected after AFSPA came into force in the state and your honourable office have every details of the crime being underway under the shadow of this dreaded inhuman and barbaric legislation which empower security force to act on mere suspicion. It will be perhaps waste of time to once more remind you how the act has been used by some vested interested individuals in the security force as a tool to eliminate any person on their will. There are many instances of the kind, but one thing worth drawing your attention is the killing of 11 person including women and a bravery award winner child at Malom Keithel in Bishnupur district back in 2000. It was after the incident that a Manipuri lady Irom Chanu Sharimila has been undergoing a fast unto death protest for repeal of the act. Mr. President, in this 21st century when India dreams to become one of the most powerful nation in the world, when India aims to take a leadership role in the world politics, it is time that your Excellency ponders upon on whether it is right to impose a draconian act to rule a group of people which anatomical look is completely different from the rest of the country. By imposing AFSPA India now have two classes of citizens – one citizen with complete freedom and the other citizen who were deprived of living a free life. Your Excellency, it is also worth mentioning that, the so called ASFPA that we in the Imphal Times is bringing to your notice is accepted by even our former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as an “inhumane Act”. P. Chindambaram the then Home Minister during UPA government had also stated that AFSPA should be repealed. And besides all these the present Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi had in his heart throbbing speech delivered at Madison Square Garden in New York had promised that his government will scrape all outdated law. AFSPA is no doubt an outdated law Mr. President. It was used by the British Colonial regime to suppress the Indian Freedom struggle. The contents of the ordinance, now legislation is suppressive, inhuman and unbearable. If our great country India is targeting and aiming to become the one time Britain of 18th Century and consider Manipur as a colony that imposition of AFSPA is all right. Then the true picture will be known by not only the people of Manipur but also by all the people across the globe. If army is the cause for the government’s reluctant to repeal the draconian outdated act, then why discrimination by only imposing it in certain part of the country. The world knows the kind of violent activism in the naxal hit areas of Northern and Southern India. Why AFSPA is not imposed in such state? It is on record that a Central government Minister had once stated that AFSPA cannot be imposed in Northern and Southern  Naxal hit area as we cannot kill our own people. Your Excellency if the government knows that AFSPA is to kill people why impose here in Manipur and at few other state. Is the hidden agenda of the India government to kill all the people of certain state utilizing AFSPA as a tool? Last, but not the least, your visit will be treated or in other wards ‘consider’ as a blessing of Manipur if your Excellency thinks of something to treat all the people equally with the rest of the people in India by repealing the draconian Act AFSPA. As your main purpose of visit is to honour the brave soul of the state which had fought the British until their death, it is perhaps the need of the hour that you have some soft corner for the people of this erstwhile kingdom, merged and become part of India in 1949.