Focus on resolving issues raised by people’s movements’

Patkar said the government was exaggerating the influence of Naxals in the country to justify their use of force to combat naxals,which was conviniently diverting the focus from indigenous people’s movements.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the book release function of the late Rajendra Vora’s book,“The World’s first Anti-Dam movement” – on the peasants protest in Mulshi Peta in 1920s – Patkar elaborated on Vora’s idea,which calls on people’s movements to adopt “aggressive non-violence or militant non violence”.

Instead of responding to people’s movements through dialogue,the government was branding all movements as varients of naxalism and resorting to violence as the only solution. This was also crushing the indigenous people’s movements,which are essentially non-violent and diverting focus from their concerns,she said.

“If the state does not respond to non-violent movements,then spurts of violence are going to emerge in people’s movements. This has already happened in Lalgarh,or Nandigram and Singur,” Patkar said. She said that naxals were being wrongly credited for the success of these movements; she said that they were mass based and indigenous people’s movement that was only later joined by the naxals.

Patkar condemned all sorts of violence,including those perpetrated by naxals,but added that the government was failing by not holding dialogues with these groups.

“Government is ready to talk to Nepal’s Maoists,and is hailing China,but cannot hold dialogue with Naxals,” Patkar said,adding that Home Minister P C Chidambaram’s offer of dialogue with naxals not genuine but “double speak”. Vora’s book documents the first Satyagraha movement of Mulshi based peasants led by Senapati Bapat against the Mulshi dam,which was supported by the Tata Group.

Patkar said Vora’s book on the peasants satyagraha has many parallels for contemporary people’s movements of the Narmada Bachao Andolan,Nandigram,Singur,and the anti-SEZ movements. Patkar said that although Vora called the movement against Mulshi a failure – because peasants were not able to prevent the dam construction – the ideas from that movement led to the rehabilation policy act of the 1960s. “The policies of the present government regarding people’s movements are worse that what the government and the Tatas did in 1920,” she said.