Activist Sharmila ends fast, wants to be Manipur CM

Irom Sharmila, the iconic activist who didn't eat for 16 years in protest against alleged army atrocities in Manipur, burst into tears on Tuesday as she licked honey from her palm to end her fast.

 

Taking the first in a series of steps towards a new life that will include politics and marriage, Sharmila said: "I am not a goddess, I want to be a human being. I want to be Chief Minister of Manipur to make a positive difference."

 

This morning, she left the prison hospital in which she spent years being force-fed through a plastic tube after being arrested for attempted suicide, which is a crime, ndtv reports.

 

With her first taste of food, she winced, then broke down and wept for several moments.

 

For a section of her supporters and family, the end of the long fast is a surprise and a disconcerting one.

 

Bombarded with questions about her political future and her plans, the 44-year-old said, haltingly but defiantly: "This is my life. I want equality... I am called the Iron Lady of Manipur and I want to live up to it."

 

She reasserted that she wants to contest the Manipur election next year as an independent candidate.

 

She also wants to marry. For years, she has exchanged letters with Desmond Coutinho, a Goa-based British citizen who has also met her.

 

Asked whether she was a woman in love, Sharmila replied: "It is natural."

 

Earlier today, as she waited for her release from court, her brief comments to the media were a desperate cry for help.

 

"I am being seen as a strange woman. Why can't people see me as an ordinary person? I am cut off from everyone," she said.

 

The death of 10 people in firing by security forces in 2000 drove Sharmila to launch a hunger strike to push for the removal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act or AFSPA that gives the army sweeping emergency powers to search, enter property and shoot on sight.

 

"People say politics is dirty, but so is society," Sharmila told reporters.