The Accidental Activist -- Oct 26, 2009
To Die For
By Venita Coelho
venitacoe...@gmail.com
What would you be willing to give your life for? That might
seem like an odd question, but it has been on my mind the
last few weeks. The Naxals and Maoists have been in the news
as the war between them and the government has escalated. The
people who the police have been arresting seem a world
removed from Maoist rhetoric. Instead, they seem to be people
like us.
First there was Kobad Gandhi. He was brought up in a rich
Parsee family, lived on Malabar hill, and had the best of
education. Still he chose to throw it all up and go fight on
the other side of the fence. His wife was a professor of
sociology in Nagpur University. Neither of them fall remotely
near the stereotype of a naxal as the government projects it
-- dangerous lawless anarchists.
A year ago there excitement over the alleged
naxalite with a Goan connection. Arun Fereira was
arrested from Bandra and held by the police. Arun
was educated at St. Xaviers college and again, a
world removed from what you would imagine a naxal
to be. There are more Goan connections. Vernon
Gonsalves is being held as a suspected leader of
the CPI (ML). Arrested along with him was K D Rao
-- a practising lawyer and office bearer of the
Indian Association of Peoples Lawyers.
More recent is the arrest of Agriculture scientist Ravi
Sharma and his wife B Anuradha. Ravi Sharma was working on a
PhD. His wife was employed by Syndicate Bank.
Of course the most celebrated is the arrest of Dr. Binayak
Sen. He is a pediatrician, a public health specialist and a
winner of a string of national and international awards for
the outstanding work he has done bringing medical aid to the
people of Chhattisgarh. His arrest was declared in breach of
international law by no less an authority than Amnesty
international. The police chose to brand him a naxal so that
they could then use special laws that allowed them to hold
him with no reprieve.
One person's activist seems to be another person's naxal.
Our own Seby found himself slapped with the 'naxal'
brand by the authorities so that they could better
deal with him. Naxal or not -- these are all highly
educated people who had the option to live
comfortable lives. Yet they have chosen to leave
the mainstream and struggle on the side of the
poorest of the poor. They have faced arrest,
detention and torture. Why are they willing to put
their lives on the line? What are they willing to
die for?
This is a question that each of us needs to answer for
ourselves. For a very real reason. I have been watching for a
long time now as activists struggle in Goa against the
combined might of the mining lobby, the building lobby, and
the corrupt state.
Where we manage to blow the whistle on one small issue, a
host of other things are being sneaked in from other back
doors.
The GBA tried it's best to get villages to respond to the
Regional Plan in a manner that would protect the villager and
the village in the years to come. Now comes news that
building laws are being passed, loopholes are being exploited
and all that we fought in the RP is coming back in other avatars.
Over the last few months I have slowly realized that we are
not just examining the projections of worst case scenarios.
The foundation of the worst case scenarios is being laid even
as we look on.
The mining industry and the building lobby are
already laying the basis for a devastated Goa. It
is time to ask you what you are willing to fight
for. As an intelligent, educated person, what is it
that you hold so dear that you would be willing to
stake your life for it?
Would you fight if someone poured poison into your drinking
water? Would you fight if someone choked the river that ran
through your village? Would you fight if the raw sewage from
a mega project leaked into your well? Would you fight if all
the fields in your village were marked for destruction? Would
you fight if the crop your family depended on for a whole
years food was deliberately destroyed? All of this is
happening in villages across Goa. It is time the fight
stopped being restricted to a few 'activist'.
No one is asking you to be a naxal. But, frighteningly, if
you don't stand up to fight now -- it may be too late in the
next few years. Your rivers will be choked, your water
poisoned, your trees cut down, your fields filled in, your
village reduced to concrete. Don't decide to join the fight
when there is nothing left to fight for. Decide what you are
willing to lay your life down for now.
