Medha Patkar calls off hunger strike

Narmada Bachao Andolan leader Medha Patkar has called off her 20-day-old hunger strike.

Medha Patkar: The struggle prolongs

The decision came after the Supreme Court on Monday observed that if the work on rehabilitating those displaced by the Sardar Sarovar dam was not done properly, it will have no other alternative but to stop the construction of the dam.

Two more NBA activists -- Jamsing Nargavekar and Bhagwati Patidar -- who too had been on fast with Patkar, also ended their strike.

NBA activist Pinjari Bai offered a glass of lime juice to Patkar in the presence of host of civil society and political leaders, including Communist Party of India general secretary A B Bardhan and Swami Agnivesh.

Addressing NBA activists after ending her fast, Patkar said their struggle, which was for a 'just cause,' will go on.

"We have honestly carried out our satyagraha. The movement will go on. So many people have supported us and I thank them all," she said.

Patkar said the report submitted by three Union ministers noting that proper rehabilitation of dam oustees was not carried out in Madhya Pradesh vindicated their stand.

Patkar, who was keeping ill health due to nearly three weeks of fast, was taken back to the AIIMS, where she was moved forcibly by the police on April 5.

"The Supreme Court has not stayed the on-going construction of the dam. The people of the Narmada valley will fight to the finish for life to expose the barbaric game that is playing itself out across the country at the cost of the oustees," she said.

Lashing out at Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, she said, "He was committing another heinous crime, this time a jalhatya (death by water)."

She also criticised the United Progressive Alliance government saying, "It has not chosen the right path and if it does not do so even now, it will be compromising on its integrity."

Patkar said during the month-long struggle they had experienced many things, and observed that political leaders were weak-kneed, and different organisations of diverse ideologies had joined their struggle.

"The prime minister and the Congress party has exhibited unbelievable weakness in challenging the communal and criminal pressures of Gujarat politics," she said.

She urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to study the report of Union Ministers who visited the valley to assess the rehabilitation measures and take a decison soon.

The NBA leader said, "Truth cannot be concealed beyond a limit. The dam may then prove to be a tomb marking the death and devatation of lakhs of adivasis and farmers in the valley."

She said within the next fortnight the NBA will work actively to expose the claims of the rehabilitation made by Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat.

She also said that future governments have to decide what they wanted to do in the name of development.

Patkar also said she was pained by the attacks on the NBA office in Baroda that was vandalised by the pro-dam activists.

The NBA supporters said the dharna would continue and that the mode of struggle would be spelt out soon.