One Indian is lionized as next Gandhi for his fast, another is imprisoned and force-fed

For the last couple weeks, Indians have been going gaga over a heretofore (relatively) obscure social activist named Anna Hazare, after his promise to "fast unto death" (just like Gandhi) unless the government agreed to pass a tough anti-corruption law brought thousands of middle-class protesters onto the streets and eventually forced Delhi to cave in to his demands. 

(Watch a mini-documentary in which Irom Sharmila tells what it's like to fast–and be force-fed–for 10 years)

But what of Manipur's Irom Sharmila? She has been fasting for a decade — the only reason she hasn't died is that the government periodically arrests, imprisons and force feeds her — but nobody seems to care, writes columnist Sanjoy Hazarika in a compelling op-ed in the Sunday Guardian.

Here's an excerpt:

Sharmila says that the Centre has "double standards" when dealing with someone like Anna Hazare, who could mobilise support from middle class India because of widespread anger over the untrammeled corruption of politicians and their handpicked babus (bureaucrats), writes Hazarika. An activist says that while Mr. Hazare was lionised after four days of a fast, Sharmila is treated as a criminal (She still is in judicial custody and is produced before courts to extend her incarceration, although a relay hunger strike by women activists of the "Save Sharmila Group" crossed 1,000 days recently.) We should ask: Why? Because Hazare was not challenging the legitimacy of the State, he was voicing an anger felt deeply over the corruption that had eaten into the heart of India; he questioned the legitimacy of those who represented the State, not the State itself. Sharmila is going far beyond his limited demand. She challenges the very nature of the State. And that's why New Delhi or Imphal can't handle her. I wonder if Anna Hazare, a former soldier, will support her struggle for justice for the tens of thousands who have suffered at the hands of the security forces in the region for over 50 years. In 2004-05, I was a member of the Jeevan Reddy Committee set up by the Prime Minister to review the Act: we demanded its repeal. The Centre hasn't had the courage to disseminate or debate it.