World | India
Activist of many shades
The last time Nirmala Deshpande was the cynosure of the media was when her name did the rounds for the highest office in the land. She finally lost out to Pratibha Patil.
- IANS
- Published: 00:30 May 2, 2008
New Delhi: The last time Nirmala Deshpande was the cynosure of the media was when her name did the rounds for the highest office in the land. She finally lost out to Pratibha Patil.
You could count on the tiny woman to stand by her beliefs though, as when she declared herself a "friend" of Maoists in a media interview two months ago. Much to the Home Ministry's consternation, she then said the Maoist victory in Nepal had her "impressed".
Deshpande at times agonised over the steady attrition of Gandhian values but, unlike other Gandhians, would never let go. She worked on many fronts - from dealing with the loopholes in the Right To Information Act to campaigning for the release of Myanmarese democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi. When Graham Staines, a Christian missionary, was brutally done to death, she organised a peace march in Orissa. When the West Bengal government unleashed violence on protesters resisting land acquisition at Nandigram, she was as always the people's voice.
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