AICC Incharge Meenakshi Natarajan Condemned Police Action on Medha Patkar
“Real politics is about working for Social and Economic Change. It is people's movements who are doing that work, and political party workers need to learn from people's movements and start doing real people's politics again. In that sense, we need to re-politicise political parties."
Hyderabad: AICC Telangana incharge Meenakshi Natarajan condemned the police action of asking Narmada Bachao Andolan spearhead Medha Patkar to leave the home of an activist where she was visiting.
Police had advised Patkar to leave the house of city-based activist Kiran Kumar Vissa here in view of law and order concerns, as there was no prior intimation to police about her visit. The house is located in Chaderghat, near the Musi river. Vissa said she had meet some volunteers living in the area and left.
Speaking on the final day of National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM) Convention, Natarajan said it is wrong of the police to stop her from visiting an activist’s house.
"It is the right of Medha Patkar, or any citizen, to visit affected people, and it is wrong of the police to stop her from doing that”, Natarajan said. “A progressive political party should not ask citizens like Medha Patkar to take permission before visiting an area."
Natarajan told the NAPM meeting: "I feel today workers of political parties are lost. They think that power is given to them by people from the top. They have forgotten that workers take real power from people and from people's movement. And hence a dialogue between parties and people’s movement is important.”
“Real politics is about working for Social and Economic Change. It is people's movements who are doing that work, and political party workers need to learn from people's movements and start doing real people's politics again. In that sense, we need to re-politicise political parties."
Along with Natarajan, Samajwadi Party Rajya Sabha member Javed Ali Khan, CPI(ML) (Liberation) central committee member Clifton Rozario, president of Telangana Jana Samiti and MLC Prof. M. Kodandaram, CPM politburo member Ashok Dhawale and CPI national leader Annie Raja participated in the convention.
Patkar chaired the session and requested party representatives to clarify their stand on various people-centric issues, including rights of local bodies like gram sabhas in regulating mining in their areas, implementation of laws like Panchayats (Extension to the Scheduled Areas) Act, guaranteed MSP for farmers, violence against women, and indiscriminate displacement.
Meanwhile, police denied reports stating that the reason for sending her back from the locality was linked to her visit to those allegedly affected by the proposed Musi rejuvenation project. A senior official said there was no intimation to police about her visit.
Vissa said police requested her to go back, saying there was no permission for staging a protest or taking out a 'padayatra'. She told police that she had the right to visit any place and talk to the people and that they cannot stop her. She also said that no protest or anything similar was planned,” Vissa said.
