Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1998 00:04:37 +0200 From: John Hutnyk <John.Hutnyk-AT-urz.uni-heidelberg.de> Subject: [Fwd: Medha's rejoinder in latest issue of India Today.] This is a multi-part message in MIME format. Received: from curlew.cs.man.ac.uk (curlew.cs.man.ac.uk [130.88.13.7]) by nessie.mcc.ac.uk (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id WAA26051 for <msrtjhk-AT-nessie.mcc.ac.uk>; Mon, 27 Jul 1998 22:28:09 +0100 (BST) (envelope-from owner-irn-wcd-AT-igc.org) Received: from [192.82.108.46] (helo=igcb.igc.org) by curlew.cs.man.ac.uk with esmtp (Exim 1.92 #2) for John.Hutnyk-AT-man.ac.uk id 0z0uoS-0006qB-00; Mon, 27 Jul 1998 22:28:08 +0100 Received: (from majordomo-AT-localhost) by igcb.igc.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id NAA03591; Mon, 27 Jul 1998 13:10:58 -0700 (PDT) Received: from mxrelay.lanminds.com (root-AT-mxrelay.lanminds.com [208.1.127.6]) by igcb.igc.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id MAA24800 for <irn-wcd-AT-igc.apc.org>; Mon, 27 Jul 1998 12:39:23 -0700 (PDT) Received: from [208.25.72.78] (irn13.there.net [208.25.72.78]) by mxrelay.lanminds.com (8.8.8/8.8.8) with SMTP id MAA24784 for <irn-wcd-AT-igc.apc.org>; Mon, 27 Jul 1998 12:39:22 -0700 (PDT) Date: Mon, 27 Jul 1998 12:48:22 -0800 From: Himanshu Thakkar <cwaterp-AT-del3.vsnl.net.in> (by way of patrick-AT-irn.org (Patrick McCully)) Message-Id: <v02140b04b1e28dde3b5e-AT-[208.25.72.78]> Precedence: bulk Sender: owner-irn-wcd-AT-igc.org Subject: Medha's rejoinder in latest issue of India Today. To: irn-wcd-AT-igc.apc.org X-Sender: patrick-AT-pop.igc.org Medha Patkar's rejoinder in the latest issue of India Today, dated July 27, 1998. Dam and Dissent Anti-dam activists are not crazy. Their protest are rooted in reality. Medha Patkar Tavleen Singh ("Luddite Sisters", June 22) is at it again. Not really at any of the environmental issues that have aroused serious debate in public fora and in the media but at us -- the activists. She boasts about being a non-activist and invariably equates that with being developmentalist. Apart from her own connotative logic and linguistics, she seems to be ideologically bankrupt, conceiving every pro-poor, pro-downtrodden and anti-exploitation move or thought as only "socialist". In Tavleen's perspective, all socialists, alternatively activists, who question decisions, actions and projects which affect the disadvantaged -- the poor, farmers, tribals, Dalits -- are against development. Full stop. Her basic premise -- actually, an allegation -- ends just here. Like many "successful" column-mongers, she picks up a sentence here and a sentence there. These are not even from our books or bulletins but from "interviews", which have first-hand distortions already. But she doesn't care (or dare?) to discuss the factual analysis or the ideological questioning behind our opposition to certain developmental plans and policies -- even if only a handful of hundreds and thousands of those. What should she be called? Anti-activist? Not only that, she is openly and overtly pro-rich. According to her, urban land and, hence, wealth should have no limits. There is no need for redistribution of riches even if almost half the Indian population suffers from hunger and poverty. She doesn't want any curb on the real-estate business. She jokes about the need for 50 million houses nationwide and makes the sarcastic suggestion of abandoning government houses. She obviously listens to the unquestioned and unverifiable claims of the dam builders -- whether in the Sardar Sarovar project or the Maheshwar one, whether the Government of Gujarat or the S. Kumar Group -- who are closer and accessible to her. But there is no place for the sigh and grief of the dam affected. That's Tavleen -- and she can continue to be herself as long as some elite sections, a real minority really, opt to read her ill-ideological rhetoric. Tavleen gets caught when she enters into a discussion on some of the features of the schemes we challenge. Take the Maheshwar project. Said to be on the anvil for 30 years, Tavleen, in her article, stays away from disclosing many aspects: no financial closure as yet; no plans for resettlement as data on "available land" is proved to be false by local villagers who are knowledgeable about every acre in the area. She doesn't care to know the process and take cognisance of the details of how people, to be affected directly or indirectly, are denied the right to know about plans which may be afoot for one decade or longer. Nor are revealed the honest scientific analyses of not only the social and environmental impact, but even economic costs and benefits. Also avoided is any mention of how fictitious are claims of the benefits -- whether of large-scale irrigation being facilitated by big dams or cheap hydro-power being generated through Maheshwar and clean power through the Enron project. Without reference to all these, Tavleen goes on. She ridicules the impact of the Maheshwar Dam on "just 2,000 families". She suggests the builders are only awaiting our suggestions on rehabilitation and nothing else. She presumes we don't want electricity or, more so, don't want the poor to use it. She never brings to her readers solid facts that can show the dollar-linked cost of Maheshwar's big, privatised hydel project will not be less than Rs 10 per unit. Or that the 85,000 mw power capacity of India has still left 30 to 50 per cent of households in Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh unelectrified. Tavleen herself is in the dark as far as this dark side of poor India is concerned. She represents a mindset which sees each and every typical development symbol -- huge dams, power projects, urban concrete jungles -- as naturally beneficial. This leads to claims that not less than 60,000 mw of additional electricity will be needed just to light bulbs in the houses of the needy. Hence, she recommends this generation at any and anyone's cost. But not hers. This is typical of an urban energy-exploiter, who buries the truth of inequality -- and even destruction of lives and livelihood of the majority -- under the glittering life in his or her backyard. Tavleen asks whether or not the basic 21st century amenities should reach every poor family. Whom does she address this question to? Those of us who are striving to take basic education, community health centres, minimum sources of energy and other such amenities to the ever-neglected tribals, the rural poor and women facing drudgery? Despite using ridiculing and rhetorical language, Tavleen can't conceal her ignorance and arrogance. These sentiments are baseless, without her having known us from a closer distance. They're truthless as they do not analyse facts and figures. They are rootless as they bear no relation to the powerless majority in this country. If not to her readers, at least to anybody who is sensitive and realistic Tavleen's ideas will only be laughable. The author is convener, Narmada Bachao Andolan, and well known as an opponent of big dams. --- from list seminar-12-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
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