July 14th, 2004

 Dear Ms. Kumar,

Thank you for making the time to meet with us o­n July 9th, along with representatives of the Narmada Bachao Andolan, two of whom are project affected people from the submergence zone of the Upper Beda Dam.  As concerned citizens we valued your reassurance that NABARD is fully committed to ensuring that the legal rights of rehabilitation for all displaced persons are protected in any projects funded by you.

The people’s verdict against the BJP led government was a rejection of market-fundamentalist economic reforms. It was also a decisive vote against the divisive Hindutva ideology.

In the past month civil society groups in India worked towards ensuring that the new government honoured its mandate. In Delhi several groups got together to plan for a national anti- war assembly later this year. The statement (2a) from the meeting, which urged India to resume its position as a key mobiliser of the campaign for global disarmament and peace, was submitted to the Indian External Affairs Minister. The Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace (CNDP), India welcomed (2c) the initiation of bilateral talks with Pakistan and issued specific guidelines to the Indian government o­n nuclear risk reduction measures.

The Indian people have sent the National Democratic Alliance packing and ended a dark phase in India's evolution, when communalism, chauvinism and anti-poor elitism ruled. This is a historic chance to impart a forward-looking, progressive, transformatory momentum to Indian democracy.