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"This Is Just The Beginning"

A day before his arrest, KRRS president, Professor M.D. Nanjundaswamy, was fiercely unrepentant.

Why did you vandalise KFC?

This is actually satyagraha, a weapon given to mankind by Gandhiji not only as an alternative to the ballot but also to the bullet. Our method of satyagraha is different because the times are different. Where governments are bartering away the country's sovereignty and interests of the people, there is no alternative other than resorting to direct democratic action. These transnationals are here to ransack the country. What we did was simple: ransack the ransackers.

But Gandhiji would never have approved of the violence...

Who says it's violence? Only destruction of life is violence. During the Quit India movement, Gandhiji was asked whether blowing up a goods train carrying British arms constituted an act of violence. Gandhiji said blowing up passenger trains is violence.

How long did you plan the attack? Were you waiting for the platoon of policemen to be removed?

These things don't need much planning. We would have done it even if the platoon was there. We just gave time to the public to debate this issue.

But what have you achieved by demolishing the KFC outlet?

I don't consider this a very big achievement. This is just the beginning. I'll call ita success only when we succeed in driving out all TNCs or undoing the designs of the so-called globalisation votaries.

But why just KFC? There are other transnational restaurant chains serving meat in India.

That's because they are one of the biggest chains in the world. Compared to KFC and MacDonald's, outlets like Wimpy's are small fry. That's why we are targeting KFC and we'll definitely not allow MacDonald's because they are the biggest consumers of meat and the biggest partners in the global meat industry.

KRRS attacked Cargill three years ago but they are back in business in India. And KFC is also working towards resuming its business.

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Cargill might be back in business but it is not as successful as it wanted to be in Karnataka at least, which is because of what we did. As for KFC, wait and watch. This is how a movement takes shape. Gandhiji took 40 years to win his struggle but we won't take that long.

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