GANDHINAGAR: Three days after he was appointed the Congress’s
Gujarat in-charge, Rajeev Satav found himself in the middle of a controversy, over a letter he had tweeted in 2017, expressing support to Medha Patkar and her Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA).
Paresh
Dhanani, the leader of opposition in the Gujarat assembly, then spoke up in support of Satav and Medha Patkar, giving the Gujarat
BJP fodder to attack the
Congress, saying its relationship was with Patkar who was “against the interests of Gujarat”.
The row erupted on the day Satav, who hails from Maharashtra, arrived in Ahmedabad to attend a function where Amit Chavda will take charge as new president of the Gujarat Congress.
On the eve of Satav’s arrival, BJP spokesperson Bharat Pandya re-tweeted Satav’s tweets from 2017, in which the Congress leader had purportedly posted a letter supporting Patkar and opposing the Sardar Sarovar Dam project, which is the lifeline of Gujarat.
“I am thankful to Medha Patkar for her anti-Narmada Dam agitation of 2017. Her agitation benefited Gujarat. Satavji has done the right thing by supporting Medha Patkar,” Dhanani told reporters on Wednesday.
Satav in a tweet had requested Patkar to end her fast. The tweet led the BJP to charge the Congress and anti-Narmada activist Patkar with being against Gujarat and its lifeline, the Narmada project. Satav, among other things in the letter, had said that the “project violated basic human rights under the garb of development…”.
Dhanani then gave the BJP more fodder, saying, “It was due to Medha Patkar’s efforts for rehabilitation that the relief and rehabilitation work was completed, paving the way for the dam’s height to be raised.”
Chavda, meanwhile, said that the BJP was raising non-issues to divert the attention of the people from the “failures” of the Gujarat and Union governments on various fronts.
Latching on to Dhanani’s comments, chief minister Vijay Rupani said the statements of Congress leaders had “exposed” their relationship with Patkar, who had worked against the interests of Gujarat.
Speaking to reporters in Gandhinagar, the CM said the Congress’s claim that it had done a favour to Gujarat by supporting Patkar — who had played many ruses in the past with the ultimate goal of preventing the completion of the Narmada Yojana — had showed that it is “anti-Gujarat”.
Vehemently criticizing the Congress and Patkar, Rupani said that Patkar’s agitation had caused implementation of the Narmada yojana to be delayed for a long time. “The people of Gujarat are aware that during the Congress regime, permission to raise the height of the dam and position the gates on the main dam was denied,” Rupani said.
He added that just 17 days after Prime Minister
Narendra Modi formed government, the historic decision to raise the height of the dam was taken, in Gujarat’s favour.
When reached for comment, Satav said the BJP was raking up issues like the Narmada dam to divert the people’s attention from issues like the Dalit agitation.
The Sardar Sarovar dam project was inaugurated in September 2017 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, 55 years after its foundation stone was laid by the first PM, Jawaharlal Nehru, in 1961.
The delay was attributed mainly to litigations and environmental agitations.
An intense water crisis is looming over parts of Gujarat this year, as water levels in the SSD have hit the dead storage, below 110.64m.
The state government has stopped supply of water for irrigation and industrial purposes, to conserve water for drinking purposes.
Congress party members at a rally which began from Sardarbaug in the city on Wednesday.
