By Matters India reporter
New Delhi: Civil rights groups and Church workers on July 27 pledged solidarity with those on an indefinite mass hunger strike against forceful eviction of villagers in the Narmada Valley in central India.
The supporters of the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA, Save Narmada Agitation) organized a sit-in demonstration at Jantar Mantar, the popular protest venue in the national capital, in solidarity with the hunger strikers.
NBA leader Medha Patkar and communities affected by Sardar Sarovar Project were to start the mass fast around noon at Rajghat, a memorial to Mahatma Gandhi on the banks of the Narmada River at Badwani, a town in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh.
However, reports reaching the protesters in New Delhi said the Madhya Pradesh police dismantled the Mahatma Gandhi Samadhi the previous night and tried to relocate it to Kukri village, around 2 km away.
Patkar and group protested the government’s alleged attempt to drown villagers and forcefully evict people from Narmada Valley without offering them complete and just rehabilitation, said a press release issued by the Delhi protesters.
The NBA activists point out that by raising the Sardar Sarovar Dam height to 138.68 meters the government has decided to drown more than 40,000 families in Narmada Valley without complete and just rehabilitation.
At Badwani, the villagers stopped the JCB carrying the memorial and protested the disrespect shown by the police forces and the administration to the father of the nation.
Gandhian Kashinath Trivedi had installed the Gandhi memorial in 1965 with urns containing the ashes of Gandhi, his wife Kasturba Gandhi and his secretary to Barwani.
“It was unfortunate day for this country to see the dark truth of development cum displacement model which did not even spare ashes of Mahatma Gandhi, Kasturba Gandhi and Mahadevbhai Desai,” bemoaned the press release from the Delhi protesters.
In the scuffle that ensued between the protesters and the district administration, two NBA activists were reportedly wounded.
NBA spokesperson Himshi Singh alleged the dismantling was done without the consent of the local committees.
Singh said that the villagers went to the rehabilitation site, where the Gandhi statue was relocated, only to find “heavy police presence.” Nearly 450 people led by Patkar protested the statue’s dismantling, for over an hour and a half.
Meanwhile the Forum of Religious for Justice and Peace, an advocacy group for Catholic women religious, has expressed its solidarity with the fasting NBA activists and people of Narmada Valley.
The Narmada Valley Project is “drowning not only a valley but a civilization, a culture and whole communities living in Narmada Valley,” says Holy Cross Sister Manju Kulapuram, secretary of the forum.
Groups of such as Indian Christian Women’s Movement have also backed the hunger strike.
People in Karnataka too organized a day of fast in solidarity with affected communities and Patkar.
The Delhi Solidarity Group and National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM) organized the protest at Jantar Mantar.
Sanjeev Kumar of the Delhi Solidarity Group briefed around 50 people gathered about the 32 years of struggle led by Narmada Valley communities along with NBA.
Hannan Mollah, a former parliamentarian and a representative of Bhumi Adhikar Andolan, an NGO, alleged the government produced false information in courts and in public while using force against people. The government, he added, has ignored people’s genuine demands to please corporate forces and industrialist.
Bhupendra Singh Rawat from Jan Sangharsh Vahini attacked the government plan to hold Narmada Mahotsav (celebration of formal closure of sluice gates of Sardar Sarovar Dam) on August 12 at Sardar Sarovar Dam site in Gujarat.
The festival will celebrate the drowning of more than 40,000 families residing in Narmada Valley without complete and just rehabilitation, he alleged. “It is the saddest truth of this country that the so called development is no more meant for poor, farmers, landless, women, fishworkers, artisans, potters, Adivasis,” he added.
Soumya Datta, renowned environmentalist, refuted two government claims to close the dam gates. One is electricity to Madhya Pradesh and another is water for Gujarat. Gujarat has failed to utilize the water stored at the dam height of 121.92 mts with gates open as the canal work is not complete. Major portion of water goes only to Coca Cola and industries instead of farmers in Gujarat, as the government promised, she explained.
Another false claim of is that Madhya Pradesh is already a power surplus state that faces corruption charges in purchasing electricity at higher rates from private companies by keeping public sector electricity power plants closed, Datta explained.