[NAPM is reported to be a collection of imperialist-funded NGOs in India whose explicit function is to undercut, and drag intellectual supporters away from, the radical thrust of such alliances as represented by RDF –which the author falsely labels a “front organization,” (thus implying with this innuendo that it has no independence or legitimacy)– and from radical campaigns against Operation Green Hunt, against forced uprooting and displacement, to free political prisoners and other popular anti-repressive initiatives. The NGOs do this by leading people on separated issues into dead-end appeals to the system to adjust policies, rather than building and linking together mass political forces against the system as a whole. This article, from LiveMint/Wall Street Journal, details the utility and importance of NAPM for its Indian (Wall Street-ish) audience–corporate business interests and comprador government apparatchiks. — Frontlines ed.]
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A non-violent, less radical agenda
Author urges, “Policymakers need to listen to the hundreds of such organizations that point out the failing of India as a nation.”
by Sudeep Chakravarti, in Live Mint/Wall Street Journal, Thursday, Nov 22 2012

Photo from mass struggle against displacement at POSCO. Author claims that “While ‘Maoist front organizations’ such as RDF naturally seek to promote Maoist interest, umbrella organizations such as NAPM feed a non-violent, relatively less radical agenda.” Photo: Hindustan Times
A meeting, significant in the context of the ongoing and future battleground of industrialization and protests against it, took place in Thrissur, Kerala, earlier this week. It was the biennial convention of the National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM), an influential umbrella organization that seeks to primarily protect livelihood and property rights, and their close cousin, human rights.
A statement from NAPM firmly targeted the proposed land acquisition law expected to be debated in the winter session of Parliament which began on Thursday. NAPM’s assumption is that the draft law in its various incarnations has steadily been weighted towards business, that there is wilful ignorance of realities at the ground level where extreme policy coercion dominates free consent, besides concerns of loss of livelihood; and it ends in nasty business.
And so, the meeting resolved to “take forward the primary mandate of sangharsh and nirman (struggle and reconstruction) with establishment of a navnirman manch”, or a reconstruction, within NAPM. “The fight for the control over jal, jungle, zameen”—the trinity of water resources, forests and land—“by the communities will be fought tooth and nail through the gram sabhas and mohalla sabhas”. It further declared that decentralization of power is “the only way out”. This is towards a goal to strengthen panchayati raj institutions, seen both as a cure and curse of (when corrupted) from-the-ground-up empowerment and development.
For government and business to dismiss this as simple extremism would be unwise and symptomatic of denial. Continue reading →