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DAM-L LS: Medha: There's hope after a dead end (fwd)
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subject: LS: Medha: There's hope after a dead end
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Source: The Hindustan Times, November 5, 2000
There's hope after a dead end
Medha Patkar
You ask me why I cried on the day the judgement on the Sardar
Sarovar Dam was declared. I don't know. I think
I should not have done that. All those journalists were there;
so many of them have been covering the movement
since 1985. I know all of them so well, and they were asking
me questions and I just could not control myself.
No, we are not defeated. Certainly not. It's a long road,
there are dead ends, but then we have to find a new path.
The main thing is that the people are determined. The verdict
has made them more determined. This time the
non-violent struggle will acquire a more difficult dimension,
perhaps face more brutality, but the people are
determined. For them it is a question of life and death.
The judgement reflects how the establishment reacts in the
face of such struggles. We went to the decision
makers with some presumptions and aspirations. We gave them
our inputs. Our going to them meant that we
are not negating the decision making process. We know they
have their own value frameworks, games, political
games; but there are rules of the game also. Between the State
and us there is bound to be a relationship,
which is based on conflict and dialogue.
But now we are realising that our premises are proving to be
wrong. The State has become valueless, unrelated
to people's concerns and suffering; it has become ad hoc and
anarchist. One cannot really call it a State of
one's dream or imagination. Indeed, the impression which Harsh
Sethi gave recently, that everything is
finished, that the NBA is a dead body waiting for burial, is
baseless. If you come to the valley you can see it for
yourself.
What is the alternative politics we are trying to build? I
would give you a clear visualisation. This will not be visible
in individual movements; there are several threads which you
have to pick up. Now people can gradually see that
who is behind the different kind of attacks they have been
facing; things are not blurred anymore. The monster of
money and market is acquiring a clear shape. That the State as
an anti-people force is becoming strikingly
clear. Only with lobbying or NGO work, things might not
change. The Indian State needs a solid jolt. And the civil
society should be sensitised about its character.
Why are we not participating in electoral politics? Electoral
politics has become entrenched in the prevailing
system. The theory that you can enter the system and bring
changes from within has failed. Electoral politics is
bound by its own framework. To survive and sustain, one has to
do compromises. Obviously, your radicalism and
basic transformative principles become redundant.
We should create a strong alternative politics which is a
parallel force to electoral politics, which cannot be
wished away, which runs parallel and yet is capable of
confronting it face to face. On specific issues there can
be clashes also. This should be a relationship of conflict,
confrontation and dialogue. We have to keep a strict
watch on this political system; its every decision, action and
their impact should be brought under meticulous
scrutiny.
We have to discover innovative strategies of struggle. This is
of utmost importance. I am not saying that don't do
rallies or dharnas. What I am saying is that we should be
clear as to where to attack, where to appeal, where to
confront.
We must reach out to the lower castes and adivasis who should
not only be sensitive towards their rights, but
should assert them. That is how the idea of reconstruction is
born. I have been arguing for long that people have
their territorial rights: their land, food, water, earth,
natural resources, cultures and traditions belong to them.
How can the State suddenly decide to throw them out of their
own territories? This is like a robbery in day-time.
We cannot even say that give us something in return, because
this system does not have anything for the poor.
And it will not give anything. That is why, the right to
information should only follow the right to resources and the
right to developmental planning.
Why should there be displacement of resources? Instead, with
people's participation in their own resources,
there should be investment of resources. I use the word
investment because it is the in-thing these days.
They say we are against technology and development. No, we
have different technological choices and
developmental models. We have to give maximum priority to the
relationship between nature and humans, and
by nature I don't mean 'wildlife', I mean a reaffirmation of
life-support systems. Equity and justice means that
natural resources are not looked as only monetary resources,
but as integral to human resources; that people
are inheritors of these resources, and not just 'affected'’
as the official terminology calls them.
They say that we are funded by foreign agencies. Why don't
they take legal action? Even LK Advani said that he
has "doubts". He cannot come out openly because he is choked
up to his throat by his Government's total sell
out to foreign forces. Advani has no moral right to call
himself swadeshi, the way they have latched on to the
foreign bandwagon. Instead, now they should be proud of being
called videshis.
You ask me, as to what will happen now, how do we locate
ourselves in history. The valley seems a micro
reality, but it is not. There are lakhs of people and so many
cultures. I have never believed in showing off our
strength by collecting thousands of people. My relationship is
from door to door, house to house. In this lie our
roots, our feelings. It is like if your mother has cancer you
will take care of her, though there are so many
mothers who are also suffering.
About jal samarpan (self immersion) they say that I am
becoming individualistic, I should not do it. But I am
convinced about it. More than that, I am convinced that the
future of the people in the valley should be secure,
while the movement should never succumb. The gains of the
movement should not be lost; there should be a
positive move forward. This is my responsibility, to the
struggle, and to history.
(As told to Amit Sengupta)
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