Medha Patkar spews venom at Modi over "committing excesses"

Bhopal, Apr 19: It's raining bouquets and brickbats for Gujarat Chief Minister, Narendra Modi. After being on a moral high for words of appreciation from the man of the moment, Anna Hazare, the joy did not seem to last long after another social crusader and Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) leader Medha Patkar unleashed her fury at the Gujarat CM.

She slammed the CM of "committing excesses" on the hapless tribals who have lost their land in the Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP) in Gujarat. Patkar has been quoted as saying to reporters, "The Modi government, which has committed massacre (katle-aam) of minorities is now committing excesses on the tribals whose lands were submerged in SSP. Some displaced tribal women of SSP had been raped but there was no place where they can get their complaint registered in Gujarat. The Gujarat government has forcibly grabbed land from tribals and did not compensate or rehabilitate them."

On Hazares's kind words for Modi, Patkar commented, "Hazare's statement on Modi was unfortunate and unacceptable." But she reiterated that she had immense respect for the anti-graft crusader and will continue to support him. She also rubbished the allegations against Prashant Bhushan and said “they were upright men for whom money was not dear." She added, “Prashant is open to an inquiry into the CD matter for the truth to come to the fore."

Patkar took the opportunity to slam the Chhattisgarh government also for targeting the social activists there and commented, “The land of tribals was being grabbed in Chhattisgarh for corporate houses which is fueling tension in the region."

She also spoke about Binayak Sen's release and proclaimed that the government was using sedition laws to target social workers and activists. She lambasted, “I don't think that Sen was a Maoist sympathiser. Maoist literature comes to my house as well. But this doesn't mean that I am Maoist sympathiser."

OneIndia News