’How to Confront State Violence? Dilemma for Peaceful Movements’.

" A joint offensive by the bureaucrats in the
Union government - including those in the Prime
Minister’s Office (PMO), the corporate powers and
multilateral financial agencies, encouraged by
the unconstitutional attitude of the Supreme
Court, has been instrumental in suppressing the
Narmada Bachao Andolan’s (NBA) truggle for the
rights of Adivasis and farmers. It was necessary
to push forward the controversial interlinking
rivers project and subsequent privatization of
rivers and water ", asserted Medha Patkar while
describing the present situation in the Narmada
valley and elsewhere.

"This clique is so fanatically opposed to any
opposition to any project and policy of usurping
people’s rights and livelihoods, that it has been
manipulating the all legal and constitutional
processes and making it impossible for any
democratic and non-violent struggle to survive",
she said in various programmes in Pune on June
17. Medha Patkar held meetings with the close
supporters, intellectuals in the city and
delivered special lecture on the death
anniversary of veteran socialist ideologue, late
the N.G. Goray, on ’Politics of People’s
Movements’.

She castigated the incoming report of Prime
Ministers’ Oversight committee (Shunglu
Committee) on Narmada resettlement as, "merely
eyewash to justify the fraudulent action taken
report (ATR) of Madhya Pradesh government on
rehabilitation. The credibility of the Prime
Minister’s office, the National Sample Survey
organization and the Supreme Court is at stake,
if they become agents of the corporate interests“.” For these vested interests, entrenched in the
government, we - the NBA and NAPM have become an
obstacle in their larger agenda. The NBA and the
National Alliance or People’s Movements (NAPM),
have been building resistance to the rural and
urban displacement, against the land-mafias,
builder-contractor lobby and against the
privatization of water and other public services.
They are furious of our strong opposition to the
capitalist Globalization and neo-liberal
policies. It is unfortunate that Indian ruling
class, and the laws and regulations are being
manipulated for the sake of the multinational and
Indian capitalists and market-economy at the cost
of people’s rights and livelihood", she made
clear while addressing the overflowing auditorium
at S.M Joshi Socialist Foundation gathered to
hear her.

She strongly hinted that this ’collective of the
bureaucrats, corporate powers, political managers
and multilateral organizations’ is bent upon
closing all the options for the non-violent and
democratic struggles. " We are firm believers in
the non-violent resistance, but the state and
corporate brutality has created doubt about the
efficacy of non-violent resistance. It may drive
some of them to opt for some other means", she
cautioned.

Corporate War on People

"It is not only about the Narmada struggle, but
also about the issues of fisherpeople’s struggle,
or the brutal evictions in Delhi or Mumbai, the
firing at Kalinganagar and repression in other
mining Adivasi areas, suppressing the
mill-workers in Mumbai, brutally demolishing the
slums and jhuggis in Mumbai, Delhi or evicting
the hawkers regarding the issue of the
reservations for the OBCs in the higher education
and jobs - everywhere the government, managed by
the bureaucrats, is openly serving the interests
of the Indian or global capitalists, by depriving
the people of their rights, resources and by
suppressing their resistance“, she pointed out.”The Manmohan Singh led the United Progressive
Alliance government at centre is hobnobbing with
the communal-fascist government of Narendra Modi
in Gujarat on Narmada issue, while, the Left
front government in W. Bengal too is implementing
the same neo-liberal agenda".

Citing the recent actions of the Union government
and judiciary in the case of the Narmada, urban
poor, and mill workers or interlinking of rivers,
Medha Patkar pointed out that "the state
apparatus, including the bureaucracy and
judiciary, has turned against the rights and
interests of the common and poor people and
instead facilitating the rule of the market and
capital. It has become inimical to very existence
of tribals, dalits, farmers, organized and
unorganized workers and marginalized communities;
the political leaders, the dominant political
parties, the dominant media are trying to smother
the dissenting voices and resistance. The
nation’s policy is being dictated by these
corporate and multilateral houses and agencies.
They do not wish the movements like the NBA to be
able to secure the rights of the Adivasis and
farmers and the NAPM to challenge the
builders-bureaucrats-politicians nexus. That is
why the have declared no holds barred war on the
people, using the police, corporate media, and
even co-opting the ’progressive’ elite". She
criticized the Supreme Court of India for,
"destroying the spirit of equality and justice
enshrined by its architect Dr. B.R. Ambedkar."

The bureaucrats and multilateral financial
agencies have vested interests in the
Interlinking of Rivers Project (ILR). The World
Bank, has again started financing to the
large-scale projects, against its own earlier
policies. It also shrugged off the report of
World Commission on Dams, of which the Bank was a
sponsor. "As the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has
been thinking about financing this trillion
dollars project, destroying the land, water
sources and forests along with the communities
through large scale displacement, we heard that
the World Bank President Wolfowitz had already
visited India and cleared the loan to the ILR,
which it had previously denied. The ILR means
building up of hundreds of large dams, without
caring for environmental clearances, or the
displacement of the billions of people and their
forests and their rights. It is the clear sign of
privatization or rivers and water and land on a
massive level".

Government for Corporates

People’s resistance to the massive evictions for
so called ’infrastructure projects’ in Mumbai,
Delhi, Kolkata and many other cities has forced
the corporate powers and bureaucrats to unleash
the repression, demolition and arson on the
working people living in the slums. The
government is handing over the prime land to the
builders lobby and their high-rise projects. The
media also has been influenced by these
interests, as they do not highlight the
tribulations of and resistance by the poor, she
said. "The large corporate houses like Reliance
are purchasing fertile land tracts in the command
area of the Sardar Sarovar Project, though the
government could hardly harness barely 10% of the
water made available in the canals at the dam
height of 110 meters. Despite exposing one myth
after another regarding the dam and its benefits,
the entire state apparatus including judiciary is
not ready to evoke the rule of law" she
alleged.

In her comprehensive analysis of the political,
social, national and international aspects of the
politics of people’s movements, Medha Patkar
dealt with the interaction with the Left parties.
Terming them as the ’natural alleys of people’s
movements’, she appreciated that the Left parties
are the only mainstream parties to take a
pro-people and pro-NBA stand- though considerably
late and if not fully. She hoped that the through
continuous mutual interaction, the areas of
differences and agreements and cooperation would
be clearer.

She made it clear that the people’s movements
have an independent standing and purpose from the
electoral party, though some of the former may
wish to raise a pro-people party. The progressive
party and movement are the two main areas in
larger people’s politics. Medha Patkar appealed
to all the citizens concerned with democratic
rights, equality and justice to participate in
any possible way - right from writing letters,
articles in the newspapers to highlight the
people’s issues and about the designs of vested
interests.