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Journalism of Courage
Medha Patkar is the BJP’s old bugbear and on Sunday Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself took on the veteran social activist, without naming her, as the Gujarat election campaign enters a crucial phase. From the Congress to the AAP, the BJP has invoked Patkar’s name frequently this election season to target its rivals.
Modi’s comments came a day after Patkar walked with Congress leader Rahul Yatra during the Bharat Jodo Yatra in Maharashtra. “The Narmada project was the only solution to quench the thirst of the arid region of Kutch and Kathiyawad (Saurashtra region). You must have seen yesterday how a Congress leader was doing padyatra with a woman, who was an anti-Narmada activist. She and others had stalled the project for three decades by creating legal hurdles” Modi said in Dhoraji town of Gujarat’s Rajkot district.
“These activists held protests just to make sure that water does not reach here,” the PM said, accusing the activists of defaming Gujarat to such an extent that even the World Bank stopped funds for the project. “When Congress leaders approach you to seek votes, I want you to ask them to explain on what moral ground the opposition party is seeking votes when their leader was doing padyatra with a woman who was against the Narmada project. I urge you to ask this question to Congress.”
On September 4, Union Home Minister Amit Shah criticised Patkar by name as an “opponent of Gujarat”, adding that the AAP had fielded her once in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections and would bring her back to Gujarat. The Narmada Bachao Andolan activist is a much-reviled figure in BJP circles in the state.
Earlier, on August 28, in the presence of Modi, at a rally in Kutch, Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel called Patkar an “urban Naxal”. The rally was organised to inaugurate projects such as the Bhuj-Mandvi Narmada branch canal in the district, arising out of the finished Sardar Sarovar Dam project.
On August 30, the Gujarat BJP posted an old video of Patkar while terming her an “urban Naxal”.
For the BJP, Patkar is not just the face of the agitation against the Sardar Sarovar Dam on the Narmada – a pet project of Modi as CM and PM – but also one of the figures who led protests against the 2002 riots.
In April 2002, Patkar had been assaulted at Gandhi Ashram in Ahmedabad, during a peace meeting in the aftermath of the Gujarat riots. The criminal complaint in the case names two BJP leaders, including the current president of the party’s Ahmedabad city unit, and the trial is still on.
In 2006, Modi, then the CM, sat on a 51-hour fast to protest against the Narmada Control Authority reconsidering its decision to raise the height of the dam, as a consequence of the protests. Incidentally, Patkar had earlier sat on a fast against the decision to raise the height, demanding proper rehabilitation for all the project-affected people first.
In his speech in September, Shah said: “… These days, some people have started something new… They have given a backdoor entry to Medha Patkar, a major obstruction in the state’s lifeline (the Narmada dam project), into Gujarat politics… This is Gujarat and we do not want anyone who opposes Gujarat.”
Patel spoke about remembering “those people who had deprived Kutch from getting water for nearly five decades”. “We all know who those urban Naxals who had opposed the Narmada dam project were… One of those urban Naxals was Medha Patkar. We all know which political party these people are associated with.”
In 2006, when Aamir Khan had supported the activist ahead of his film Fanaa’s release, it was banned in Gujarat in protest. Patkar had tried to intervene to allow the screening.
A senior BJP leader said: “The Narmada dam project is a very sensitive issue for Gujarat. It is a fact that Patkar opposed the project, causing a lot of difficulties for the state government. Today, when AAP is viciously attacking the BJP, the party will counter-target in every possible way. The fact that Patkar fought elections on an AAP ticket is a clear opportunity for us.”
AAP had fielded Patkar from Mumbai North East in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. In 2015, she quit the party.
AAP denied the BJP’s claims of its continuing association with Patkar. A party leader in Gujarat said: “AAP and Medha Patkar have nothing to do with each other. They (the BJP) are using her name to defame AAP. It is a pointless attempt to misguide the people of Gujarat.”
The leader added that the attack showed the BJP’s nervousness when it came to AAP. “In so many years of power in Gujarat, the BJP did not have to defend itself against the Congress as they have to do now against AAP. Whatever issue Kejriwalji raises, the government has to take a decision on it within 48 hours.”
On August 30, in a message on Twitter, Patkar blamed both the BJP and the AAP, calling the “fake” allegations part of the electoral politics between the two parties. She left the AAP within a few months of the 2014 polls, Patkar wrote.
