Trip report of Mehdiganj, just before the Dharna started.
By Madhulika Yalamanchi on March 21, 2006.
Madhu:
“On the 21st of March, NAPM & Lok Samiti had organized a mobilization/awareness event in Gandhi Bhavan, Lucknow. Few individuals who had been instrumental in organizing their communities and leading the anti-coke struggle were honoured. A few influential people from the community were invited to speak. I was present when Ms.Roop Rekha Varma, a retired Women's Studies professor and ex-Vice Chancellor of Lucknow University spoke. She said there are so many principles associated with this struggle: water as right to life, health, swadeshi-videshi and sanskriti. The swadeshi-videshi concept and the sanskriti concept are debatable and questionable on so many grounds. Talking about health, there are many other dangerous chemicals we feed our children without questioning. She said the reason she was here was that she believes just as the struggle believes, that water is a community right and a constitutional right. No company or state has the right to deprive the communities of their water resources. The state has the responsibility not the power, to ensure equitable distribution. While she congratulated and appreciated the efforts of people and communities leading the anti-coke struggle, she asked them certain questions.. Will the struggle be able to empathise with people leading similar struggles relating to conservation, protection and equitable distribution of water resources elsewhere. It could be struggles to stop a local big farmer from appropriating water resource from smaller farmers, or campaigning with state to ensure sustainable and equitable irrigation policies. She emphasised that it is not possible nor necessary for a small group to work on everything, but it is important to look at this struggle in a larger perspective of right to water and extend solidarity to similar efforts. Then, there was a movie show followed by a discussion.
The same night, I went to Mehdiganj with Nandalaji and his friends. My plan was to actually to meet women workers in different occupations in 4 villages of Mirzapur and Bhadohi districts. I started a day early so I can be there for a little part of the dharna at Mehdiganj and leave for Mirzapur, which takes about 2-3 hrs from Mehdiganj.
We reached the Mehdiganj Ashram by 8:00am and the school has started by then. There were 2 street play teams practicing for the nights performance. It has been a week long hard training for the teams from Ms. Savita of a Banaras arts academy (I can't remember the name now). One team was from Hardoi district of UP and they were working on a PDS play and the other was from villages around Mehdiganj preparing the play on anti- coke struggle. After watching the practice for sometime, I left with Nandalalji to meet a few people before the day of dharna. We went to a silayi center in another village which had about 15 – 20 girls and women learning. The sewing machines had apparently been donated by local people. The school space has been donated too. The Ashram provides for the salaries of teachers. Nandalaji explained to them the schedule for the village. Apparently, they had drawn out a schedule for each day of the dharna. People from each village had a day alloted. Women from the village would go in the mornings and men would join in the evenings. We went to the police station. The idea was to inform the police of the dharna and the seek permission for a spot to have the tents set up. The inspector showed a legal notice from coke which prevents any performance, shouting slogans or dharnas within 300m from the company premisies. Nandalalji asked the inspector to go with us to inspect the spot and they agreed. The inspector gave us a talk on constructive vs. destructive type of work. He said they were doing nakaratmak (destructive) work in asking the company to leave. He wanted them to do more constructive work like water harvesting and stuff. Nanadalalji was silent and nodding, but I was angry. In my broken Hindi, I told him (or wanted to tell him) both the components are important, that the organization was doing other constructive activities like the schools and silayi centers, it is only time before they take up water conservation activities, which are definetly very important. The inspector also said that last week he stopped a large farmer from appropriating a water body and it was constructive work. I asked him how one kind of stopping was constructive while the other was destructive. He didn't understand and Nandalalji didn't help me explain. Later I asked him why he was silent and he said, he knew it wouldn't matter. Both the sides had their ideas and were not willing to listen to the other, so there is no point arguing. We walked out of the station where we met two more people from the department. They were very supportive of the struggle and said they help with the choosing of the site.
Next, we went to a reporter of Dainik Jagaran, a widely circulated newspaper in U.P. Nandalalji asked the reporter to announce the start of the dharna and the reporter took the required details. One interesting thing I learnt was that no U.P newspaper mentions the name "Coke" with respect to the Mehdiganj struggle or the anti-coke campaign. Hindi papers say "ek bahu-rastriya company" and the English "a multi-national".. I had wondered why when I tried to follow the newspaper reports of the campaign and this reporter explained to me that they were all bought by coke.
We went to another silayi center to wait for the inspector. The lady who runs the center also has a small shop. She and others who were a part of the savings groups took loans and started some shops. Male members of her family get all the commodities to be sold and she manages the sales in the shop. She told us that Limca (coke) has been giving people 70Rs per day to keep them away from the dharna. She said the rate might go upto 100Rs on the 23 rd. They have been organizing health camps, eye camps and giving out money, bedsheets etc.. Nandalalji said that coke had inaugurated a water harvesting project in central jail the previous day. While we were talking, the inspector called and we went to the company premises. Nandalalji showed them the site right opposite to the gate on the other side of the road, knowing fully well it would be rejected. In the meantime, the guard came and told the inspector the manager wants to meet him. The inspector told Nandalalji he would call before 7:00pm and let him know. As we left the spot, we saw the manager walking towards the inspector.
We went back to the village Nagepur and with the street play troupes went to 2 villages. It was my first experience of a street play. The troupes first went around the village singing and announcing the play. People assembled in hugh numbers. The first play on PDS was performed by the Hardoi team (all first timers). There was one woman in the team. The play shows a ration card dealer refusing to give grains to the villagers, the villagers going to the DM who intervenes and exposes the corruption at the store.
The second play is on coke and the struggle focussing on the demands of the dharna. It shows 3 officials (foreign) bribing the village leaders for land and the villagers discussing pros and cons of having a plant. They all decide to lauch a dharna and a legal campaign. When on dharna, they get the judgement on their side. But they decide to continue till the judgement is followed as they have seen enough notices on paper. I video-taped the announcement as well the as the play. I heard people saying "that is true.. that should be done…" and such remarks. They sang powerful songs about the anti-coke struggle and Nandalalji requested people to join the dharna.
The inspector called after midnight to tell Nandalalji that they should think about another spot. So, the next morning they picked a spot on the other side of the road to the left of the company gate. Some of us went there around noon. We learnt later that the police refused this spot too, but the dharna people fought back and the police had to let go. There was a drinking water cart arranged at the dharna site. They made arrangements for such carts at busy spots of Raja Talab and Banaras with support from some AID chapter.
There were more than 200 people at the site. Women from the villages, NGO people, Communist party members and individuals joined. There had a mike and played songs continuously. Few of them gave speeches. There was a nice play on multi-nationals and the GATT agreement in relation to agriculture. It was time for me to leave and figure out how to get to Chunar. Nandalalji must have told you the latter part of the story."
- Madhu.