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DAM-L LS: 34 Arrested, 500 Prevented from Attending Rally/Editorial by (fwd)
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Date: Thu, 24 Aug 2000 10:41:40 -0700 (PDT)
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subject: LS: 34 Arrested, 500 Prevented from Attending Rally/Editorial by
Medha Patkar
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Press Note/ August 24, 2000
Arundhati Roy and Other Supporters Reach Domkhedi-Jalsindhi
JUSTICE SACHAR, 33 OTHERS DETAINED BY GUJARAT POLICE : 500 STOPPED ON M.P.-
GUJARAT BORDER : 'SAGA OF NARMADA' CONTINUES AS PLANNED
While the Gujarat government has exhibited its cowardice once again by
unwarrantedly detaining prominent people who were proceeding towards the
Satyagraha locations in the Narmada valley, the "Saga of Narmada" programme
got underway in Domkhedi-Jalsindhi with hundreds of tribals participating
in it. They have appealed to the people all over the nation to stop the
destructive Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP) and make the governments in India
follow the rule of law and the Constitution of India, respecting the rights
and natural resources of the people. Noted author, Arundhati Roy has also
reached the Satyagraha place, after a stopover in Baroda for 12 hours, to
participate in the programme.
The Gujarat police detained the thirty four people - with 11 women -
including Justice (retd.) Rajinder Sachar, ex-President of People's Union
of Civil Liberties of India, noted Gandhian educationist Jyotibhai Desai ,
reputed jurists in Gujarat Girish Patel and Haroobhai Mehta (former MP),
feminist journalist Vidya Bal, Minar Pimple of National Housing Rights
Campaign, senior mathematician Dr. Mangla Narlikar, Madhukar Deshpande of
Vidnyan Vahini, senior NBA activists, Alok Agrawal and Sukumar and people
from Tamilnadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, and other parts
of the country. In the early morning, over 500 people from Nimad were
detained by Gujarat police at the Madhya Pradesh-Gujarat border, near
Chhaktala. Strangely, one of the reasons cited by the Gujarat police for
all this alarm was that the Madhya Pradesh Police have asked them to detain
the people from proceeding to the Satyagraha place! Veteran Socialist
intellectual Surendra Mohan and Dr. Sunilam, MLA from Madhya Pradesh
proceeded towards Satyagraha.
As the programme date was nearing hundreds of police sealed the roads going
out from Baroda. Gujarat police detained five activists on Wednesday, who
were later released . This scare on part of Gujarat government was
bordering dementia. Even when the senior jurist, Mr. Sachar tried to
convince them about the illegality of their acts, the police pleaded
helplessness by referring to the " instructions from above". Senior lawyer
in Gujarat, Haroobhai Mehta, who is among the detained, has decided to
challenge this act in the court. All are detained under Sec.68 of Bombay
Police Act.
Before being detained, in a short meeting of the supporters, Mr. Sachar, in
a statement made it clear that, "We are not breaking any law. We are only
exercising our fundamental right of movement and free speech, inspite of
the police warning not to do so. If inspite of our wanting to exercise our
basic rights peacefully and within law, any of us are detained, arrested or
prevented from moving, it will amount to criminal offence of restraint and
wrongful confinement. In that case we make it clear that we shall bring
criminal complaint against the highest of political personnel and of the
police administration in a Court of Law". Mr. Mehta clarified that he has
been the supporter of the SSP and he wants to listen to the people affected
by the dam, from which he was being prevented.
In another incident, the Gujarat government has stopped over 500 men and
women from the SSP affected villages from Nimad region in Madhya Pradesh at
Gujarat boundary near Chhaktala (teh.Alirajpur). The District Collector of
Baroda has informed the people that they were not allowed to enter Gujarat
because "the roads are slippery due to heavy rains". They were prohibited
to enter in Gujarat under section 37 of Bombay Police Act. The people are
not ready to go back and they have started the "Public Hearing" about the
dam and displacement there, as they were not allowed to reach Domkhedi-
Jalsindhi.
The Domkhedi Programme, "Saga of Narmada" has been organized to make an
appeal to the conscience of nation regarding the basic issues of people's
rights for just and sustainable development. It is meant to refresh
people's awareness of the grave situation in the valley. Therefore, number
of social, political activists, journalists and artists were supposed to be
present there, along with hundreds of people from the valley. Gujarat
government wanted to prevent this from happening. While various other
groups from Nagpur, Dhule and from the valley have reached from Madhya
Pradesh and mountainous path of Satpuda ranges from Maharashtra. Noted
Socialist activist Kumar Saptarshi, M.B. Shah from Maharashtra too have
reached.
Meanwhile, Jnanpeeth Award winner Kannada litterateur Prof. U.R.
Ananthamurthy, and formal Chief of Indian Navy, Admiral Ramdas have
condemned the anti-democratic way of handling the non-violent people's
movements. Various people's movements including National Alliance of
People's Movements (NAPM), National Fishworkers Forum (NFF) and national
and international organizations like International Rivers Network, Friends
of River Narmada and AID-India have condemned the gross violation of
fundamental human rights by the Gujarat Government.
Joe Athialy Sanjay Sangvai
---------------------------------------
An invisible renaissance
By Medha Patkar
Source: The Hindustan Times, New Delhi, Editorial Page, Aug. 24, 2000
The Government of India is seeking a dialogue with militants in Kashmir,
even with those operating at the behest of Pakistan. The Chief Ministers of
Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, and the Centre, have come to their knees; they
are ready to concede the atrocious demands of a thug like Veerappan.
Paradoxically, the people in the Narmada valley, struggling to safeguard
the resources of this country, have to confront submergence under water due
to the Sardar Sarovar project, as it happened on July 15 and after, as it
happens every monsoon.
What have the people in the valley been demanding? They have been seeking a
legitimate role in the decision making process on issues concerning
development, their destiny and resources; and their protests have been
peaceful, within the norms of our democracy. But for the last 15 years, the
State has dismissed the pleas of the non-violent movement for a review of
the controversial Sardar Sarovar project which was pushed without basic
impact studies, and still does not have a formal and legal clearance.
Instead, the Centre, and the Governments of Maharashtra, Gujarat and Madhya
Pradesh have used their might to defame and suppress the people's movement,
often with police brutality.
They don't have the guts, nor the will to establish the truth related to
displacement and rehabilitation. There is no land to settle thousands of
displaced people. And now, as is the norm every monsoon, they are trying to
evict the people with the threat of submergence.
In the Kargil war, the soldiers, mostly from the households of peasants and
backward classes, gave their lives for the elite, who are ever eager to
rush into the glitz and cacophony of globalisation. The tribals and
peasants in the beautiful Narmada valley are fighting yet another war with
their lives equally at stake, to save their land and villages while the
governments are demanding their sacrifices to benefit the urban-industrial
elite.
When superficial issues like the arrest of Bal Thackeray and parliamentary
brawls catch the headlines, basic issues of the people are marginalised.
And yet, the struggles have to go on. With the accelerated pace of
encroachment on their sources of livelihood, the toiling people have no
option but to fight for survival.
Due to the developmental policies pursued during the last 53 years and
especially with the advent of globalisation and liberalisation, the
displacement from fields and traditional occupations has become the fate of
large sections of people. With no or little access to the emerging economy
of money and market, the natural resource-based communities such as
agriculturists, fishworkers and forest dwellers have to routinely face the
worst case scenario, not just in terms of everyday hunger, but also in
their cultural uprootment. Certainly, their distress is as intense as the
atrocities inflicted on Dalits and minorities caused by upper caste private
armies and organised communal forces.
The satyagraha in the Narmada valley has raised serious issues regarding
development and nation building. It is challenging the outright violation
of constitutional and human rights. Several crucial issues regarding our
democracy have not been addressed since the last five decades. Now, it's
the people on the margins who are asking these difficult questions.
It's in this context that the Narmada satyagraha has been on since 1991.
For the last ten years, with a willingness to face rising waters and
imposed evictions, the people in the valley, along with many other
movements in India, are asking some basic questions: "Whose nation is this?
Who is the "public" and what is the "purpose" of a democracy? What sort of
a nation are we making and for whom?" If our political system fails to
respond to these queries, then the nation will stand discredited in the
eyes of all those who are the eternal victims of this top down paradigm of
"progress". All democratic institutions will have to face this prospect.
From 1987 onwards, the struggle in the valley, corresponding with similar
struggles against destructive projects, has been striving for a truly
democratic decision making process on the issue of sustainable development.
The issues brought forth by such struggles that emerged during the Eighties
and Nineties have been seeking a "modern" (if that means contemporary) and
rational model of development, apart from an equitable, just and humane
polity as the core value of a society.
Apart from asserting the pre-displacement rights of the affected people
like the right to information, meaningful and decisive participation,
proper evaluation of their needs and resources, and community rights to
natural resources, the Narmada movement linked displacement with the
so-called "public purpose" of the project. This linkage is important since
the project and the consequent displacement has been justified on the basis
of "public purpose" and "national interest".
The affected people"s refusal to take displacement for granted while
linking the issues of displacement and "public purpose" have enraged
powerful lobbies engineers, bureaucrats, politicians and financial vested
interests at every level. Inversely, this has been a major step towards
the realisation of democratic rights.
Thus displacement does not remain just a technical and managerial problem
but is seen in a totality. It depends on the kind of projects we undertake
and our resource matrix. How much of land can feed us and also provide
employment? Do we have the freedom to involuntarily change economies and
cultures of the toiling sections? Do we have a framework of equitable
sharing with all, including the landless and destitute? What are the
environmental effects of the project and can we afford these? Are the
benefits real and lasting? These questions just cannot be sorted out with a
"management approach"; it is essentially a political issue dealing with
ground level reality.
The project protagonists tend to generalise the benefits and particularise
the costs of the projects. The tribals and farmers have been challenging
such presumptions. "Are not our resources, our lives and rights part of the
nation and national interest?" they ask. Are not the well-settled villages
and forests, fertile lands, the abundant crops, unpolluted, free flowing
rivers, clear, transparent skies and air, the ambience and landscape in
which the people still live part of the national wealth?
The rapid democratisation and assertion of identity among the hitherto
depressed classes will inevitably intensify this critique? "Whose benefit,
at whose cost? What is a nation? If you benefit at the cost of our lives,
rights and resources, then the very concept of nation and nationhood has to
be looked into." This is the new consciousness which no regime can crush
anymore.
The struggle of fishworkers across the Indian coastline, including the
critical one at Umergaon, Gujarat, and by farmers in Karnataka and Kerala;
the protracted battle of the workers of Chhatisgrah; the Dalit and backward
class movements on issues ranging from grazing land to right to
information, are some of the landmarks of the new consciousness. These
discourses have been trying to shape an alternative paradigm for the
nation. Every democratic institution will have to answer these grassroots
urges: political parties, Parliament and legislatures, policy-makers,
judiciary, and the civil society. This is crucial if we want to build a
sane society.
In Domkhedi and Jalsindhi villages on the banks of the Narmada, people have
pledged to continue satyagraha (peaceful insistence on truth) with
nyayagraha (insistence on justice). We are engaged in Nav Nirman
(constructive action) where villagers are creating sustainable alternatives
in energy, agriculture, education and health, nourishing the forests or
building micro-hydel projects, as the recent one inaugurated on
Independence Day. Hundreds of children at the Jeevan Shala (schools for
life), run by the Narmada Bachao Andolan, celebrated the International
Peace Day, on August 6, linking the issues of war and violence, nuclear
weapons and destructive armaments to the need for non-violent revolutions
integrating nature with human society.
Last year, the satyagrahis confronted the submergence, but did not budge
even when the water reached their necks. This year too, we are prepared to
stake our lives for the sake of justice and democracy. This is the way
common people will protect the "Nation" in their dreams. This is our
contribution to people"s politics, this is our effort towards social
renaissance, this is also our share in the international fight against the
"global powers" out to capture new "consumer markets". It"s a battle
leading us into a real war.