It's been six years since the governments of four states and the centre assured the Supreme Court that most of those affected by the Sardar Sarovar Project had been found alternative homes and land, and every time the dam height was raised, the rehabilitation would go hand in hand with that. In its October 2000 order the Supreme Court said its go-ahead to raising the height of the dam was contingent on the rehabilitation and environmental impact being taken care off.
Even so thousands of families in villages across Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh are landless, homeless, and jobless. Its been 44 years since the foundation stone for Sardar Sarovar was laid, 27 years since the Water disputes tribunal made its final award, 7 years since work resumed on the project - yet we can't as a state, as a nation, as a system hand some of the country's most dispossessed, the most meager compensation.
***
Even harder to believe- everything so far was written without having to say Medha Patkar, Arundhati Roy, or even Aamir Khan once! Because it seems issues and facts on their own can't sustain our interest today- and only deserve mention as secondary to the personalities that take them up.
As a result, for the past three weeks we have been more aware that activist Medha Patkar is on a fast, that her health is deteriorating, that she rejected the Minister for Water Resources profferred glass of juice, that the police moved her to hospital........ Or that Arundhati Roy once courted arrest for contempt of court now thinks its all a farce- ... and that Aamir Khan feels strongly about something or the other.
And I suppose now that Narendra Modi went on a fast to support the dam, it will not be necessary to look at the benefits proposed by the backers of the Sardar Sarovar Project- potable water to thousands of villages, an eventual 1450 MW of electricity hoped for, 18 lakh hectares expected to be irrigated, either. Or whether all of these proposed figures are even accurate.
At every level personalities draw our interest- but divert the potential of drawing our interest to the issues at hand.
Two years ago- I was among journalists covering the twentieth anniversary of the Bhopal Gas Leak tragedy and the campaign for justice for its victims- I might as well have been there to write the obituary of the campaign. Over the years several film actors, writers, poets, intellectuals and academics took up the issue of compensation for the families of nearly 3,000 that died, 15,0000 that continued to suffer and died over time.
But that December in 2004, very few were able to make the time and effort to go to Bhopal. The absence of any public personalities meant a little over a dozen people took part in candle-lit vigils leading up to the anniversary. Even on the main day marking the death of so many, in a city still plagued by the lasting effects of Methyl isocyanate, a few hundred was all that showed up in solidarity. There were more people outside hospitals for those still affected than at the protest rallies. What made it worse, a personality clash between the local leadership of the campaign itself meant two separate rallies, a movement split down the middle, and frankly, a movement going nowhere.
The personality trap is that the inevitable exit or moving on of personalities from causes ends up hurting the causes more in the long run- than the benefits, the spotlight they bring to the issue in the first place. And that's a dam tragedy.
About the AuthorSuhasini Haidar Suhasini Haidar is Diplomatic Editor, The Hindu. Earlier, she was a senior editor and prime time anchor for India's leading 24-hour English news chann...Read Morefirst published:April 17, 2006, 16:31 ISTlast updated:April 17, 2006, 16:31 IST
window._taboola = window._taboola || [];_taboola.push({mode: 'thumbnails-mid-article',container: 'taboola-mid-article-thumbnails',placement: 'Mid Article Thumbnails',target_type: 'mix'});
let eventFire = false;
window.addEventListener('scroll', () => {
if (window.taboolaInt && !eventFire) {
setTimeout(() => {
ga('send', 'event', 'Mid Article Thumbnails', 'PV');
ga('set', 'dimension22', "Taboola Yes");
}, 4000);
eventFire = true;
}
});
window._taboola = window._taboola || [];_taboola.push({mode: 'thumbnails-a', container: 'taboola-below-article-thumbnails', placement: 'Below Article Thumbnails', target_type: 'mix' });Latest News
The facts should shock- unfortunately it is the personalities that do.
It's been six years since the governments of four states and the centre assured the Supreme Court that most of those affected by the Sardar Sarovar Project had been found alternative homes and land, and every time the dam height was raised, the rehabilitation would go hand in hand with that. In its October 2000 order the Supreme Court said its go-ahead to raising the height of the dam was contingent on the rehabilitation and environmental impact being taken care off.
Even so thousands of families in villages across Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh are landless, homeless, and jobless. Its been 44 years since the foundation stone for Sardar Sarovar was laid, 27 years since the Water disputes tribunal made its final award, 7 years since work resumed on the project - yet we can't as a state, as a nation, as a system hand some of the country's most dispossessed, the most meager compensation.
***
Even harder to believe- everything so far was written without having to say Medha Patkar, Arundhati Roy, or even Aamir Khan once! Because it seems issues and facts on their own can't sustain our interest today- and only deserve mention as secondary to the personalities that take them up.
As a result, for the past three weeks we have been more aware that activist Medha Patkar is on a fast, that her health is deteriorating, that she rejected the Minister for Water Resources profferred glass of juice, that the police moved her to hospital........ Or that Arundhati Roy once courted arrest for contempt of court now thinks its all a farce- ... and that Aamir Khan feels strongly about something or the other.
And I suppose now that Narendra Modi went on a fast to support the dam, it will not be necessary to look at the benefits proposed by the backers of the Sardar Sarovar Project- potable water to thousands of villages, an eventual 1450 MW of electricity hoped for, 18 lakh hectares expected to be irrigated, either. Or whether all of these proposed figures are even accurate.
At every level personalities draw our interest- but divert the potential of drawing our interest to the issues at hand.
Two years ago- I was among journalists covering the twentieth anniversary of the Bhopal Gas Leak tragedy and the campaign for justice for its victims- I might as well have been there to write the obituary of the campaign. Over the years several film actors, writers, poets, intellectuals and academics took up the issue of compensation for the families of nearly 3,000 that died, 15,0000 that continued to suffer and died over time.
But that December in 2004, very few were able to make the time and effort to go to Bhopal. The absence of any public personalities meant a little over a dozen people took part in candle-lit vigils leading up to the anniversary. Even on the main day marking the death of so many, in a city still plagued by the lasting effects of Methyl isocyanate, a few hundred was all that showed up in solidarity. There were more people outside hospitals for those still affected than at the protest rallies. What made it worse, a personality clash between the local leadership of the campaign itself meant two separate rallies, a movement split down the middle, and frankly, a movement going nowhere.
The personality trap is that the inevitable exit or moving on of personalities from causes ends up hurting the causes more in the long run- than the benefits, the spotlight they bring to the issue in the first place. And that's a dam tragedy.
Comments
0 comment