Rights groups hail decision on Irom’s marriage

They also urged the police to provide necessary protection to her and her husband. “We also condemn the engineered moves, presumably by NGOs objecting to the proposed marriage of Irom Sharmila with Desmond Coutinho before the Marriage Registrar, Kodaikanal,’’ Human Rights activists said in a joint statement.

The police must perform their constitutional obligations rather than aligning with the few communal,

anti-secular, divisive and criminal forces of Kodaikanal. “If there is a living embodiment of non-violence in this country, it is none other than Irom Sharmila, who is a recipient of several international awards for staging the world’s longest protest by fasting for 16 years to ensure life without the Armed Forces Special Powers Act,’’ it said. 

When Kodaikanal could be home to a number of foreigners, to persons from all over India, who were welcome as tourists and property holders or teachers in the international schools, how could Irom Sharmila be denied her right to stay is Kodaikanal, the activists asked. She has every right to exercise her freedom of movement enshrined in the Constitution. “We are shocked to understand that the Kodaikanal DSP Selvam is pressurising her and her fiance to leave Kodai on the basis of petitions being presented to him by communal forces’’, the statement said.