Medha has continued with her dramatized and glamourous way of putting the hurdles in the progress of Narmada Project. She should be allowed to continue without forcing any medical assistance to her. She has no guts of facing 5 Crore Gujaratis, hence she goes to Delhi with aristocrat personalities to make her presence felt through media. God bless her. may her soul rest in peace!!!!!!!!!!!
Nice article by Sheela Bhat. As mentioned, people do not understand the problems of displaced people and just talk about development. Who gave the right to take away lives[livelihood is lives for many] of hunderds of thousand people to water other villages.
Least asked is proper rehabilitation and to stop increase in height, only temporarily halted untill rehab is done.
People who are talking about development will also react if their houses and livelhood is taken away and not properly rehabilitated.
Medha cannot hold the Nation to ransom. There is no difference between suicide bombers and Medha. She should get elected from Madhya Pradesh and then fight for the rights of her people. Her present approach is pure dadagiri and nothing else. She is not only challenging a democratic system, but also the legal system, that we have in place. I think her movement is akin to that of the Naxalite movement in eastern and south-eastern India. She is in effect challenging almost everything that we uphold. I have no sympathy for her ideals. People who accepted rehabilitation are definitely better off than those who joined her band wagon. She is totally erred, if I might say so.
The Narmada Dam is a classical case of the many paradox that development in India presents. On one hand, the constitution desires to promote social justice through reservations to the most marginal section of our society through reservation in higher education and Government jobs and on the other, the tribals are not even provided with the basic right to their land and livelihood. Without proper rehabilitation, many of these tribals, uprooted from their native lands, will become a part of the urban slums,living in an alien environment and pursing livelihoods that they are not oriented or trained for. Their children won't get the benefits of getting a primary education, forget availing reservations in higher schools of learning.
Now, if the NBA that demostrates through civil and non-violent means is getting this treatment from a democratically elected Government, the key question to ask is whether the tribals would have got a better deal if the Naxalites had championed this cause? Even today it is difficult for the Government to implement schemes in Naxalite areas that are seen as anti tribal.
Medha Patkar is one of the smart cookies of the marxist brigade that does not care for development and progress. As that would lead to prosperity, leaving them no chance to dish out their proleteriat nonsense. IF she chooses to die fasting so be it, tghere is only so much sense u can drill into these marxists.
