BHOPAL: The civil society is embarrassed after Aruna Roy's reservations on Anna Hazare's campaign and the anti-Anna stand taken by the likes of human rights activist Shabnam Hashmi and Dalit leader Udit Raj. Celebrated writer Arundhati Roy's statement has also shaken the activists. Roy is associated with the National Campaign for People's Right to Information ( NCPRI).
"We completely disagree with the statement of Arundhati Roy, that the Maoists and Jan Lokpal activists have one thing in common - they both seek to overthrow the Indian state," said Medha Patkar of Narmada Bachao Andolan. "This is baseless and not acceptable," Medha said.
Medha is also one of the conveners of NAPM (National Alliance of People's Movement), an organization of over a dozen NGOs. Arundhati Roy has been an ardent supporter of Medha's campaign against big dams.
She was in Bhopal to spearhead India Against Corruption movement in the city and she led activists to gherao the BJP and Congress headquarters.
When quizzed about Shabam Hashmi terming Anna's movement as "violent", Medha opposed it, saying, "How can she term it violent? Satyagrah can never be violent. I have always appreciated Shabnam's human rights campaigns, but I disagree that Anna's movement can be violent just because he has set a deadline for the UPA to accept the Jan Lokpal".
When asked whether nti-Anna voices would affect the movement, Medha said, "They may, they may not." However, she hastens to add,
"We may have differences on how the campaign should be run or on some points of the Jan Lokpal bill, but they can be sorted out with discussions. We certainly don't want Mahabharata with each other."
Asked how she would justify Anna's deadline for passage of the bill, Medha clarified that the August 30 deadline was not fixed by Anna. "It is UPA's problem... the government has given permission to protest on the ground till August 30."
Medha also wanted someone with a clean image to be the government emissary for talks with Team Anna. "Someone like Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chouhan, there are no known cases of corruption against him."
Criticizing BJP veteran L K Advani, Medha said that Advani had no right to demand the resignation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. "He should first clarify his stand on Jan Lokpal."
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