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(RANJIT SINGH)
New York:April 13.06.
The news-watchers might have viewed actor Amir Khan’s sympathetic visit to the Delhi Dharna rally of the
Narmada Bachao Andolan with admiration.
Medha Patkar, the icon of the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) and her two companions, Jamsing Nargave and
Bhaagwatibai Jaipuria, have been on an indefinite fast since March 29,06. Hundreds of the NBA supporters are
on Dharna at Jantar Mantar, Delhi to show solidarity with the movement. On the night of April 5,06, the Delhi
Police forcibly took Medha Paatkar to force-feed her and her co-activist, only to see that nothing would break
her will power and the determination of her supporters.
It was at this critical juncture that a silver screen hero went to Delhi to express his solidarity with this biggest
social justice movement and lent glamour to it.
But the events that followed his visit have brought out the real-life hero in Amir Khan, the hero of commoners.
The BJP activists burnt his posters and pictures, force-stopped screening of his world-acclaimed movie, Rang
De Basanti, in the theaters of Ahmedabad , while a dozen of them created a riot-like situation in front of his
house at Bombay. But all this
failed to deter him and dampen his devotion to the cause. Through the television channel, he has made his
mind clear and has shown the Peoples’ Movement in its right perspective.”
“Let those who are demonstrating against me continue with their demonstrations. They are hurdling the
screening of my movie. They are burning my pictures in the streets; let them come and burn me in my house.
But I stand for the cause of the poor people. I am not against development but they shall not devastate people.”
Though very well-known to the activists of social justice, writers, artists and the right groups in India and abroad,
the sincerity of the activists of the Narmada Bachao Andolan has become more pronounced to India’s movie
fans, thanks to the sympathetic visit of Aamir Khan to the NBA activists at sir-in (Dharna) at Delhi. Also thanks to
the extra-judicial approach of the Modi-backed, BJP activists against Amir Khan in Gujarat and Bombay, their
modus operandi has , once again, got exposed. They believe in demolishing all those that is not to their liking.
But it did not scare Aamir
Khan and this qualifies him to be to bne India’s Social-justice icon.
There has been a very slow penetration of the sincerity of purpose of the NBA into the mass psyche. The
reason is simple and clear. The opponents and adversaries of the Narmada Bachao Andolan are powerful
politicians, wealthy vested interests , government-paid engineers and government-backed media. Naturally, they
have succeeded in dubbing the NBA as an anti-development movement that will hurdle India’s industrial
advancement and will particularly
hurt the interests of the people of Gujarat.
On the other side of the arena, millions of people whom NBA protects are rural poor, forest-tribals and the
communities, dependent on natural resources. Also, the people spearheading the NBA and those associated
with it are activists, NGOs, artists, writers, human right groups- in short, all those who are disliked by
governments and operate without media support. Their only tool of publicity is email, which they are using
effectively.
A friendly hand by a silver screen hero, Amir Khan, is perhaps the first golden touch that would make the people
think of and about this greatest social justice movement. That is why I have come to appreciate Amir Khan as
the real-life hero as against the silver screen hero.
It does not mean, however, that the NBA did not have popular support or recognition before Amir Khan
appeared on the scene at Delhi. In time, it has attracted thousands of well-meaning people into its fold and has
the blessings of the
millions, it will protects. An NBA’s press release dated April 11,06 gives a brief of the letters, petitions, fasts and
marches in Bombay, Pune, Chennai,Calcutta and even outside India, in support of the Delhi Dharna. Weighing
this worldwide support for the NBA against the extra-judicialism resorted to by the few BJP activists, I feel no
hesitation in concluding that the NBA is the fight of the people against the powerful.
The leaders of the NBA have been telling time and again that the Narmada dams have devastated the lives of
innumerable and will further doom millions if the height of the Sardar Sarovar Dam is increased by yet another
eleven meters. They just demand the land-based resettlement and rehabilitation of the communities that have
been submerged and would be submerged. And this too is the verdict of the Supreme Court of India.
As against them, the opponents of the NBA and especially the politicians of Gujarat are adamant on increasing
the height of the dam, without taking into consideration the interests of those communities whose lands are
submerged or would be submerged. They say they want water and hence the NBA is their enemy. Little do they
realize that they are planning to quench the thirst of their few thousands by starving millions, whereas according
to NBA, they can serve the people of Gujarat by means other than that, what NBA calls “alternative Approach.”
At this stage of the movement, the role of BJP is understandable. To discourage elites like Amir Khan by
resorting to extra-judicial means is nothing new. It is their oft-repeated strategy to demolish what they do not like
or approve. Their goal to weaken, crush and depopularize NBA is also understandable. They have never stood
with the interests of the common man. They are the ones who during 2004 elections declared a SHINING INDIA
by highlighting highways and flyovers, while hiding the reality of the farmers committing suicides.
Today’s announcement by Narinder Modi to sit on 51-hrs fast to pressurize the Manmohan Singh government
not to make any review falls in the same line. He wants a higher dam even if it starves millions, leading to
suicides.
But what is not understandable is the attitude of the Congress Party and the Congress-led U.P.A Government at
the Center. No response to the call for the Gujarat Bandh, in the wake of 51-hr,-fast announcement by Modi
shows their inability and lack of courage to tell the people that the rehabilitation and resettlement of the
displaced must have priority over the development ambitions.
The Indian National Congress, by itself the product of the world’s biggest anti-colonial movement of Mahatma
Gandhi has failed to espouse the reality that the development that results in the devastation is a colonial policy
and India shall stay away from this strategy. Neither the Indian National Congress nor the Left Parties, who claim
to be the vanguards of the people, have thought of a mechanism, so far, to foresee and prevent the devastation
that comes in the wake of development.
Appearance of non-political heroes, like Amir Khan, on the Social Justice scene is a welcome trend. And there
can be no better social justice than giving back to the displaced what you take from them for development.
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