"After Anna Hazare's effort, I am supporting Irom Chanu Sharmila. Are you?" Bhautik Sheth said on Facebook.
Another social networker, Reshma, said on her Facebook status: "If the demand for Anna can be met [within] a few hours of [fasting], why [can't Sharmila's] demand be met when she [has been] on a fast for 10 years?"
Sharmila has been on a fast since November 4, 2000, demanding the repeal of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) in Manipur and other northeastern states.
Her story, more than a decade old, started with the infamous Malom massacre of November 2000 when 10 people, including a 1988 National Child Bravery Award winner, were gunned down by security forces in Malom town of Imphal valley. The paramilitary forces claimed the civilians died in crossfire.
"The lack of government response convinced Irom Sharmila Chanu, then 28, to act. On the evening of November 4, after [getting her] mother's [blessing], she launched her hunger strike against the wider problems of AFSPA," Sharmila's Facebook page states.
"In due course, she extended the scope of her demand to all regions of India's northeast where AFSPA has been imposed."
The controversial law confers special powers upon the armed forces in "disturbed areas", including most of the northeast, Jammu and Kashmir.
Enacted 52 years ago, it gives sweeping powers to security forces to curb terrorism — and many like Sharmila say it has been widely misused.
"She has not met her mother once these 10 years: her pact with her... mother is that they will see each other only after she achieves her political goal," reads a petition calling for a Nobel prize for Sharmila, popularly known as the ‘Iron Lady of Manipur'.
Degenerating organs
"Her body organs have begun to degenerate irreversibly; her menstrual periods have halted. The tube through which she is forcefully fed [is] painful."
The page has so far drawn the support of over 8,400 people. Sharmila is force-fed three times daily, through a nasal tube, which has become a part of her identity.
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