Vandana Shiva visited Plachimada of
Palakad district in Kerala to inaugurate the first
anniversary and second phase of Anti Coca-Cola
agitation and “to pay tribute to and saint brave
Earth warriors”. She chats with RTHEESH KALIYADAN on
related issues. Excerpts: Vandana Shiva visited Plachimada of
Palakad district in Kerala to inaugurate the first
anniversary and second phase of Anti Coca-Cola
agitation and “to pay tribute to and saint brave
Earth warriors”. She chats with RTHEESH KALIYADAN on
related issues. Excerpts:
Driven by the world bank and world Trade
organisation, water- our common life support – is
being privatised, commodified and destroyed. The
Doha declaration of the WTO is an attempt to
privatise water by forcing removal of “all tariff
and non –tariff barriers to trade in environmental
success” we reject free trade in water which is
destroying water wealth and robbing being of water.
Water can not be owned, controlled, exploited bought
and sold by a handful of multi national corporate
like Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Suez, Vivaldi, Bechtal etc.
No government has the right to give rights to
corporate to rape the earth and make profits out of
destroying life.
· What about the central Government decision
to link water bodies?
We condemn the Government’s ecologically devastating
plan to link India’s rivers for 200 billion dollars.
The “river linking project” should be called “the
river privatisation project” we will not let our
rivers be privatised. We will undo the logic of
Privatisation of water through our movements and our
moral strength. Owning and selling water is perverse
and non-sustainable. We will liberate our rivers and
water from the corporate. Privatisation means water
wars. We want justice we want sustainability we want
peace.
· How war against Iraq is connected with
water issues?
War against Iraq is war against the world. It is the
imperial greed with which while Iraqis were bombed,
killed and the water systems destroyed. The first
thing they had done was, destroyed water systems, US
corporate like Bichetl were already being given
contracts for water. Control over food and water is
part of Imperialism, which decide the economy as a
genocide .So anti-globalisation movement is anti
militaristic movement.
· Is it connected with internal
militarisation also? Is it relevant in Gujarath
carnival?
Religious fundamentalism is an imperial agenda,
which is practiced by Sangh parivar in India. It
was the old British strategy, applied to divide and
rule . The same is part of globalisation today. Mr,
Bush is part of religious fundamentalism. The
Gujarath carnival acted as a smoke screen to
activate anti Swadeshi policy. Gujarath is a mask to
support WTO. BT Cotton, water policy and patent
right act are examples. The agricultural agreement
loots our food, the property rights agreement loot
our bio diversity and the general trade agreement
loots our water. This is not Swadeshi , but stifling
Swadeshi . BJP destroyed the term. They should be
banned to use the term and let the people to use
Swadeshi.
· What is the relevance eof local
resistance like that of Plachimada in resisting
global agenda?
At the front line of the struggle against one of the
world’s biggest corporate giants, Coca-Cola,
something holds the tribals together. It is the
relationship with their land and water. Just as
Gandhi put Dandi on the map of world history, a
little hamlet of tribals in Plachimada put on the
map in defense of the earth and in resistance to
corporate monopolies over life itself – our bio
diversity and seeds, our water and our food. It is
the real freedom movement- ­freedom for the
earth – beginning with the adivasis, the first
people.


To the global corporations, to the WTO, to the world
Bank and to the Governments which act in “
Partnership” with these corrupt companion and
organisations we say “ the world is not for sale” we
commit ourselves to the protection of bio diversity
and water as “Commons” to which local comities
belong. Resist privatisation of bio diversity
through patents and privatisation of water through “
Private – public partnerships” we will not accept
this new imperialism and hydro dictatorship.

(Ratheesh Kaliyadan is an Indian Journalist,who
specialises in Environmental Reporting