“Team Anna’s electoral politics should be complementary to people’s movements,” Narmada Bachao Andolan leader Medha Patkar said on Tuesday.
Speaking to journalists here, she said she didn’t agree with the manner in which the decision for Team Anna to get into politics was taken and announced (at Jantar Mantar where it was on a fast for an effective Lokpal). “It could have been done differently.”
Ms. Patkar said Team Anna’s leap into politics was rather premature. It should have been preceded by intense discussions. “Those who want to form a party should come to an ideology. They should have a total vision of what they want to do, and evolve an innovative strategy on today’s issues of water, land, and forests. Electoral politics should be complementary to people’s movements, not contradictory.”
Ms. Patkar was a member of the erstwhile core committee of Team Anna, but she says she was not active in the last few months, as she was busy with her struggle for project-displaced people.
Asked if the core committee was consulted on the decision to plunge into electoral politics, she said, “I am not so sure,” but wished Team Anna luck. “Give them time.”
To another question, she said the movement against corruption was not over, it was on. “If it is a movement of the people, then people themselves will keep it alive and fight from wherever they are.”
Asked if she would contest elections if Team Anna invited her, Ms. Patkar said, “Cannot say. I do whatever the National Alliance of People’s Movement and the Narmada Bachao Andolan, with whom I am associated for last 27 years, say. As of now, our people feel that non-electoral politics is making so much impact.”
