Narmada and Bhopal

Countdown: 7 days !!


Something interesting (and perhaps remarkable) has been going on in Indian political activism recently. First, background. There have been two peoples' protest movements (among others) going on for a while -- one the Narmada Bachao Andolan and the other by the victims of the Bhopal gas tragedy. The Narmada movment is about the construction of 2 large dams on the river Narmada. The huge amount of people displaced to make space for the dam, and the doubtful benefits of the dam itself is the chief story there. It has become a highly polarised issue with strong advocates both for (mainly government and 'establishment') and against (displaced tribals and citizens who have taken up their cause). More info from the point of view of the NBA is at www.narmada.org.

The Bhopal issue is much less complex and much more sad. Its around the terrible response of the goverment in rehabilitating the victims of the Bhopal gas tragedy. The story is heart-rending and while I don't remember all of it, one piece of news gives some idea: in July 2004 the Supreme Court forced the government to distribute a significant amount of the money that it got from Union Carbide to the affected peoples. Your life is ruined by poisonous gas and you have to sue your own goverment to get the compensation money 20 years later !
You can read more at www.studentsforbhopal.org

Fast forward to the current date. In an imaginative joining of forces people from both the Narmada protest and the Bhopal movement have marched to New Delhi to press their demands with the government. In the case of the Bhopalis several people including some of the survivors of the tragedy marched *500 miles* in 5 weeks from Bhopal to New Delhi. Various stuff happened including police attacks. The Narmada end gave up hope of getting a response from the government at one point and went
into a hunger strike. A few people, including the well known Medha Patkar have been striking for several days now. Medha was arrested by the goverment for the crime of attempting suicide and is now at AIIMS where she and one more person are still subsisting on lemon water. The Bhopalis asked for an audience from Manmohan Singh and were basically refused. I have a high opinion of the PM but in this case -- the survivors of a terrible natural disaster march 500 miles and you don't have to courtesy to meet them ?! They also are now on a hunger strike.

In both cases the pressure is mounting on the government to do something and there are signs that it can happen. The extraordinariness of thie situation is the drama of two well known protest movements joining hands like this. They have set up camp across from each other in New Delhi and are feeding off each others' courage and resources. Its a great moment.

Part of the pressure on the government comes from ordinary people emailing/faxing/phoning government officials (including NRIs calling the Indian consulates abroad). If you want to do this the above websites give you a way of doing this without much trouble. Emailing and online faxing is effortless from the sites, but calling is the most effective.

Fax: http://www.studentsforbhopal.org/FaxAction/fax_action.php
http://petitions.aidindia.org/narmada/

Email: http://www.studentsforbhopal.org/FaxAction/email_action.php

Phone numbers: http://www.studentsforbhopal.org/MarchToDelhi.htm