NARMADA BACHAO Andolan(NBA) leader Medha Patkar and Booker Prize winning author Arundhati Roy on Saturday denied that the Andolan was flush with foreign funds.
Speaking to The Hindustan Times, Ms Patkar said the organisation had not only refused foreign funds but even rejected an award money of Rs 32 lakh. She dismissed as “totally baseless” reports alleging that the NBA was involved in “hawala transactions” or
any other activity that could be interpreted as anti-national.
The NBA leader was talking in the context of a recent newspaper advertisement issued by the Ahmedabad-based “National Council of Civil Liberties,” alleging that the Andolan activists were passing on to foreign “people” confidential documents relating to
projects of national importance “with (the) sole objective of halting the progress of the nation.” The advertisement also alleged that the NBA was not a registered body which ran its show “successfully” for the last 10 years through “hawala transactions.”
Ms Roy, too, pointed out that there was “no secret” about fund collection by the Lok Samiti and even her Booker Prize money was given to it. “To associate it with hawala is outrageous,” she remarked, adding: “The people who themselves are going around
soliciting foreign funds have no right speaking like this.”
