Indian police arrest hunger striker

India's best-known environmentalist was in critical condition after nine days on a hunger strike to protest against the displacement of 35,000 families by a dam project. For a week Medha Patkar had lain on the pavement in 100F heat, surrounded by supporters and television cameras. But on the night of Apr. 5 hundreds of police officers arrested her and forcibly removed her to a hospital. Scores of supporters were rounded up and also arrested. Police said the charges included inciting unrest and hindering government officers from carrying out their duty. "Some 500 to 700 policemen swooped on the site after midnight as if they had come to nab terrorists," said Bhupindra Rawat, a supporter of Patkar who was released by the police shortly after being detained. "Then they dragged Medha and many of us, dumped us in trucks and drove away." Patkar was admitted to the intensive cardiac care unit of New Delhi's main hospital and was being guarded by six police officers. Hospital officials said she was only taking sips of lemon water. Protesters returned in greater numbers on Apr. 6 to continue the demonstration. Patkar is the public face of the Narmada Bachao Andolan (Committee to Save the Narmada), which has fought a two-decade struggle against four state governments to halt the construction of dams along the Narmada River. Successive administrations have argued that India needs both the electricity and the water the dams would provide. Patkar began her fast on Mar. 29 to try to stop the height of the largest dam being raised by 33 feet–a move that would displace 25,000 families in the river valley. In the past Patkar's protests have forced the World Bank to cancel funding for the Narmada dam, partly because of the human cost of displacement. Environmentalists, human rights groups and political parties have condemned her arrest, accusing the government of "stifling legitimate protest." One of her most celebrated supporters, the novelist Arundhati Roy, said that India's government had put on a "horror show" in arresting Patkar. "It is all so ghoulish," Roy said. "The government is building its new India on the backs of the poor. It just does not want to admit it, but it is." A UN special representative on human rights, Miloon Kothari, who holds the brief on the right to adequate housing, said the government should stop building the dam until there was a plan to compensate those who would be displaced. Kothari said the country had been unable to resettle 10,000 families who had to move when their villages were flooded after the dam was last raised by 33 feet. "India is facing a systemic problem," Kothari said. "It does not seem to be able to resettle affected people. If it cannot do that, from a human rights perspective, then it must stop raising the height of the Narmada dam." After a number of ministers came to her roadside bed, Patkar said she would continue her strike until the government published its plan to rehabilitate displaced families in the Narmada region. Sonia Gandhi, the ruling Congress party president, also expressed concern over Patkar's plight. "The government cannot afford to let anything happen to Medha," said Tarun Tejpal, the editor-in-chief of Tehelka magazine. "This administration came to power because it was supposed to be concerned with the ordinary man, not booming stock markets and big dams. She is a symbol standing up to their hypocrisy."