SC failed to call Govt bluff: Medha

In the second part of her interview, Medha Patkar throws light on the Supreme Court order and why she thinks it was flawed. She also talks of her party's election foray and why she believes it is the beginning of another big movement.

SI: 2004 will end two decades of your fight at the forefront of Narmada Bachao Andolan. This is not a fight you were born into... This is a fight you adopted. You have been through hunger strikes that nearly killed you. You almost took a jal samadhi. However, there are people who say these were publicity stunts and little else. And isn't there a rather curious tale on the jal samadhi...!

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Medha: Yes, that one is talked about…! This happened last monsoon at Domkhedi in Maharashtra

I was part of the last team that had decided to face the end. And this time, unlike all other times, the policemen and officials had decided to keep away. No one from outside really knew what was going on…

We were standing in the water… it was like a sea all around. Hundreds of villagers including women and children were standing on the hillocks just out of the reach of the rising waters. It was a very charged atmosphere.

Meanwhile, a boy from the village had set off for a telephone booth a good two hours away… water was by then rising fast and he knew the speed.

By the time he reached the phone and told people outside what was going on, the water had reached our necks and we were about to washed away… I had even written my last note and handed it over to my colleagues… Suddenly, something came over the villagers and they swarmed in and dragged us out. For the next two or three hours we argued with them, but they would not let us go... They held us like captives on top of a hillock…!