Dear friends in the list, I have been following the mails regarding Sugathakumari's visit to athirappilly mostly, but as it atarted flooding also there are lot of misconceptions about the whole thing. And to respond to each person and mail, I think it takes days with my capacity. So I am generally writing with some clarifications, for this I consulted with few activists of athirappilly struggle too.
First of all, Ranjith started writing in the assumption that Sugatha Kumari is a patron of Athirappilly struggle, which is not the case. And for everybody's kind information she has not been even invited by the samarasamithi to give a visit to athirappilly to boost the struggle. She went on her own, and which is not for me to comment upon. (I am not getting in to the debates about the politics or positions of Sugatha Kumari). During the past years many people have visited Athirappilly, and the people in the movement never wasted an opprtunity to raise the issue, even if the visitor was Electricity minister Balan. And to my understanding, People like Ammini, Janaki, Thanka, Subran, Shelly and many others own the movement in the same way as Latha, Unni or SP Ravi own it. And I have also witnessed the BJP, RSS people of the Athirappilly panchayath fasting with solidarity when Medha Patkar fasted against Modi. The people in the river basin are not very familiar with the debates of Gail and Arundhathi. And they donot stop any one being part of the struggle. For example, KSSP, Solidarity, Church groups, BJP (in Athirappilly panchayath), CPM, CPI, CPIML , Congress Adivasis, dalits.. there was a wide variety of support and representation at various stages, and the movement was receptive to all this. Mainly because of this reason, I donot think it is for us to warn about Sugathakumari's hijacking possibilities. The people are capable of dealing with it. I am glad that discussion is happening, but dont know why mostly based on mere assumptions. Assumptions are fine, but based on assumptions we can't have worries about a movement. Also using terms very loosely like 'green mafia' 'green environmentalism' ... may be some of us had very bad experience with some environmentalists, that would be the reason of the bitterness. But regarding Athirappilly struggle and sugatha Kumari's visit, I donot think these terms/tools are very effective. I have also requested Lata from 'Chalakudi river protection forum' to comment on the issue, she may do it later. By the way lot of things are happening at Athirappilly. The bio diversity board has asked the Govt for a reconsideration of the project. By following the issue with a little more attention, I hope that our efforts in this forum may also be able to help the movement. Thanks Aryan --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth?hl=en-GB -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
