May 2011 
Year 17    No.157
Debate


Oh Dear! Annaji  0

Hazare’s support for Narendra Modi elicits anger and disappointment

‘Your endorsement is appalling’

April 11, 2011: We are deeply shocked by your endorsement of Narendra Modi’s rural development. There has been little or no rural development in this state. In fact, gauchar (graziers’) lands and irrigated farmlands have been stealthily taken by the government and sold off at ridiculous prices to a small club of industrialists. There has been no Lokayukta (ombudsman) in Gujarat for nearly seven years so hundreds of complaints against corruption are lying unheard. From the Sujalam Sufalam scam of 1,700 crores to the NREGS (National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme) boribund (check-dam) scam of 109 crores to the fisheries scam of 600 crores, every department is involved in thousands of crores of scams. The poor and rural people are being sold to Modi’s friends, the industrialists. The state is in terrible debt because of his largesse to industry while 21 lakh farmers wait for compensation.

Your endorsement is appalling and we will be forced to distance ourselves from the Lokpal movement unless it is irrevocably retracted.

Mallika Sarabhai
Dancer, choreographer and activist, Gujarat

‘Your praise is misplaced’

April 12, 2011: We received your reply in the form of your ‘press release’ to the media in which you have once again reiterated that “I praised only the developmental work done by Shri Narendra Modi and Shri Nitish Kumar in rural areas”. That is what we are questioning – the “rural development model” of Mr Narendra Modi based on the ground realities in Gujarat.

Our letter dated April 11 highlighted the ground reality of the downtrodden masses of Gujarat, from farmers to fishing communities, tribals and salt pan workers. Please read it carefully. Most of us in Gujarat working for the working class, women, farmers, Dalits, tribals, landless labourers and the downtrodden, who wrote to you on April 11, have focused on the development that Modi claims has happened but is a contrast in reality. 

Your endorsement of Modi’s development led to Modi writing an open letter to you, minding you of a “vilification campaign”. We hope you realise the implications of endorsement now.

For a chief minister who turned his back on scores of farmers who demand their right to farming (the Mahuva agitation), on tribals who seek forest land, turning a blind eye to pollution in towns and villages (Ankleshwar, Vapi, Nandesari, Vatwa, Saurashtra and Kutch) and fishing communities being deprived of their livelihood in Kutch – the instances are numerous – will you call it development Annaji?

Your vague clarification is only related to communal harmony and politics – which is not what we in Gujarat raised to you in our letter while pointing out that your praise of Modi’s development model is misplaced.

You could either visit the state to have a first-hand look or could reach out to those affected and working in the state. We hope that you will rely on the facts and not the false propaganda of the government.

Even your mention of communalism is very vague and you have not said anything about the role of Mr Modi’s government in 2002 and the continuation of the worsening of the plight of most affected people, particularly poor Muslim women and men.

We need to look at the situation holistically and not in isolation, as the rise of fascist communal forces in Gujarat who use “development claims” to mask all their shortcomings. The rise of fascist communalist forces in Gujarat is closely linked with the neo-liberal globalised development model.

We hope for a suitable and prompt clarification on your comments now.

Rohit Prajapati and Trupti Shah
Social activists, Gujarat


Some clarification!

An explanatory press statement by Anna Hazare

April 10, 2011: I am issuing this statement to clarify one of my statements which has been misinterpreted.

On a question asked in my press conference today, I praised only the developmental work done by Shri Narendra Modi and Shri Nitish Kumar in rural areas. Alongside, I clarified that I am equally opposed to any form of communal disharmony. I am completely opposed to any kind of communalism or discrimination on religious or caste lines. I strongly condemn and oppose any kind of communal violence. People from all faiths and religions are founders, supporters and participants in this movement. This includes the archbishop of Delhi, Mufti Shamoon Qasmi and others. I strongly believe in Gandhian values and principles of communal harmony.

I also wish to clarify that we are not attached to any political party. The movement is completely non-partisan and will remain so.

I sincerely urge the press to understand my intentions, which is to save this country from corruption by taki©ng people of all faiths and religions along.

KB Hazare


A mercenary understanding of corruption

April 12, 2011: We, academics, activists, artists and intellectuals, strongly condemn the recently reported statement made by Anna Hazareji in which he has brazenly endorsed Narendra Modi, a politician who not only symbolises the politics of division but unconstitutional governance. For the veteran anti-corruption social activist, Hazare, to endorse a politician against whom a Supreme Court-led investigation into conspiracy to commit mass murder and rape, subversion of evidence and pressure and intimidation of key witnesses is still underway reveals a narrow and mercenary understanding of the meaning of corruption. Worse, given the support base of the recent high-profile and highly televised event-agitation, that included open support from Ram Madhav and the RSS as also Baba Ramdev, Hazare’s move could be construed as a bid to actually influence this Supreme Court-driven criminal investigation.

Modi stands accused and has not yet been cleared of serious charges of actively masterminding mass murder, loot and rape of 2,500 of Gujarat’s innocent citizens, consciously perverting his position and power as chief minister in 2002. This and other investigations have been rigorously pursued by victim survivors of these gruesome massacres and Hazare’s statement, more than anything else, rubs salt into deep wounds. Not once in the nine years since the state-sponsored carnage has Modi, who has written a tear-filled communication to Hazare, wiped tears from the heavy hearts of Muslim victim survivors in Gujarat. Nor has Modi even apologised for failing to perform his constitutional duty.

On the issue of corruption and good governance too, Modi may yet fail the exemplary test. Allegations of serious corruption in state government schemes have been steadily documented and printed within Gujarat but have rarely made it to the headlines of national television. There has been little or no rural development in this state. In fact, gauchar lands and irrigated farmlands have been stealthily taken by the government and sold off at ridiculous prices to a small club of industrialists. The ridiculously low interest loan given at the expense of five crore Gujarati taxpayers to Tata’s Nano project suggests a corrupt loan write-off of public finances.

The irony of Modi being hailed by the leader of the national Lokpal movement is cruel, since there has been no Lokayukta in Gujarat for nearly seven years! Hundreds of complaints against corruption are lying unheard in that state as the common Gujarati reels under his mercenary dictatorship. From the Sujalam Sufalam scam of 1,700 crores to the NREGS boribund scam of 109 crores to the fisheries scam of 600 crores, every department has been accused of being involved in thousands of crores worth of scams.

The poor and rural people of Gujarat are being sold to Modi’s small coterie of friends, the industrialists. The state is in terrible debt because of his largesse to industry while 21 lakh farmers wait for compensation for the land seized from them. How then can Hazareji call Modi non-corrupt or hail his model of development?

Little or no funds have been released by the government of Gujarat to the Minorities Finance and Development Corporation, even less to the Gujarat State Wakf Board. No figures are provided by the state government for funds allotted to the religious minorities.

The corrosion and corruption in our system is not merely monetary but the subversion of the Indian Constitution and constitutional governance due in large measure to the unbridled and unchecked growth of state and non-state actors who are sworn to partisan politics, ideology and governance. While there was more than some discomfiture felt by many of us when we saw this worthy anti-corruption movement being supported by RSS cadres and by Baba Ramdev, who is guilty of amassing crores of rupees and property himself, this discomfiture increased as accusations of busloads of supporters arriving at Jantar Mantar from Gujarat came in and finally dues were extracted by the ruler of that state, Narendra Modi, in the form of praise from Anna Hazareji.

Teesta Setalvad, Rajendra Prasad, Jawed Naqvi, John Dayal, Henri Tiphagne, Kamal Faruqui, MK Raina, Dr Vasanthi Devi, Dr Bindu Desai, Balaji Narasimhan, Suresh Bhatt, Dr Dinesh Mohan and others

Unfortunate and unacceptable

April 12, 2011: It was shocking to find that Anna Hazareji, after receiving support by all of us, with millions, publicly appreciated the rule as well as rural development work by the chief minister of Gujarat, Mr Narendra Modi. The entire world knows the role played by him and his administration in Gujarat’s communal riots. His government has only indicated callousness and contempt for the farmers and other natural resource-based communities in Gujarat, including those fighting against displacement from their land and livelihood or for rehabilitation. 

On the issue of corruption, Modi’s response to the initiative to bring in a strong enactment or to wipe out corruption is, to say the least, only politically motivated. If he was committed to an institution like the Jan Lokpal, how could the Lokpal’s post be vacant in Gujarat since 2005? His government has suppressed massive corruption in land purchases and submitted exaggerated data on benefits to the drought areas of Kutch and Saurashtra and the rural population.  

In Narmada, we have seen how the Adivasis in Gujarat, screaming against the legal violations and deprivation in rehabilitation work, do not receive any response and the Modi government is ready to submerge the best of agricultural land and generations-old villages and townships in the dam reservoir in three states.

As a shrewd politician, Mr Modi knows how to divide the secular forces and seek advantages for himself and his party. We shouldn’t however fall prey to this. Anna too must hear and pay heed to the serious grievances and charges coming from activists and people in Gujarat against Mr Modi and his government. Gujarat is growing only for and with the industrialists at the cost of those contributing their land or human labour and now the local communities in Gujarat have also stood up to challenge the injustices. 

All of this clearly indicates a betrayal of rural, needy populations for his corporate vision. We surely join many of Gujarat’s progressive activists, who know the ground reality and the atrocities against the Dalits, Adivasis, minorities and other downtrodden populations, to tell Anna that he should stay away from supporting politicians until and unless they prove their mettle and commitment to people’s causes. We agree with the letters written by activists Rohit Prajapati and Trupti Shah to Anna, seeking an explanation. The common people of India have supported the battle against corruption with faith in our campaign and credibility as people’s movements based on the core values of equity, justice, democracy, secularism and plurality. This should not be compromised at any cost.

National Alliance of People’s Movements:
Medha Patkar, Aruna Roy, Kavita Srivastava, Maj Gen (retd) Sudhir Vombatkere, Vimalbhai, Sandeep Pandey, Anand Mazgaonkar, Madhuresh Kumar, Thomas Kocherry, Kamayani, Sister Celia, Simpreet Singh, Rajendra Ravi, Arundhati Dhuru, D. Gabriele, Suniti SR, Uma Shankari, Faisal Khan, Ashish Ranjan, Saraswati Kavula


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