Gujarat: Was offered Rs 50 crore by BJP to switch alleges opposition leaderModern wars are no longer confined to borders only. While watching for enemies without, one must be wary of those within as well.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi alleged that there were "conspiracies to defame Gujarat and stop investments", while addressing a rally in Bhuj in Kutch district on August 28. Gujarat Chief Minister, Bhupendra Patel, present on the occasion, too joined the issue and added that 'urban Naxals' had opposed the ambitious Sardar Sarovar dam on the Narmada to deprive the state and arid Kutch region of water and development.
Was it a usual political rhetoric? Unfortunately, not! PM Modi and Patel are echoing what Dr. Manmohan Singh and Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan too have said on two different occasions. The conspiracies to block development and progress, on various pretexts, are not confined to Gujarat alone, but are a pan-Indian phenomenon that has slowed country's progress, set it back by several decades and deprived common citizens of fruits of development that would have made their lives easy.
The debilitating impact of such deep-rooted conspiracies on India's development was brought out succinctly by Forbes, an international publication in one of its issues in 2019. The magazine pointed out that GDP per capita for China and in India in 1985 was almost same, $ 293 per person. According to 2017 World Bank report, China's GDP per capita has ballooned to $8,827, and India's is way behind at $ 1942. China's economy today is five times larger than that of India.
Gujarat: Was offered Rs 50 crore by BJP to switch alleges opposition leader
Why such a yawning gap between the two neighbours? Here is a case study of construction of two dams - one in China and another in India - that possibly explains how China leapfrogged India. China built the Three Gorges Dam, the world's largest hydroelectric work in 15 years. It was a gigantic project that displaced over 1.2 million people, flooded 13 cities, 140 towns, 1350 villages, has an installed capacity of 22,500 MW and a height of nearly 600 feet.
In comparison, Sardar Sarovar dam in India is 453 feet high, and an installed capacity of just 1450 MW. The Narmada dam flooded no city, inundated no town, impacted 178 villages and displaced less than one tenth of the people the Chinese dam had. Its foundation was laid by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in 1961 and it was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, 56 years later, in 2017. The inordinate delay in its completion not only deprived millions of households of drinking water and irrigation facilities to a large swathes of parched land spread over three states, but also ended in massive cost escalation.
However, over half-century long completion period helped many enterprising individuals to gain celebrity status. Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) leader Medha Patkar received many international awards for her 'spirited protests' - or for forcing an avoidable, but hugely expensive delay on India. Filmmaker Anand Patwardhan's 'A Narmada Diary' documentary won the "Filmfare Award for Best Documentary, 1996" and the 'Grand Prize' at Earth-Vision Film Festival. 'Drowned Out', a 2002 documentary film about opposition to the dam, by Franny Armstrong was nominated for Best Documentary in the San Francisco Film Festival. While countless hapless Indians suffered for want of precious water that drained into Gulf of Cambay unused, social predators parlayed their misery into a self-promotion project.
Well known columnist Swaminathan S Anklesaria Aiyar admitted last Sunday (Times of India, September 4), that his opposition to Narmada project, at Medha Patkar's instance was "wrong". In a candid admission, he added, "she made a fool of not just me but of thousands of concerned humanists who should also be angry at being taken for a ride." He concluded the confessional write-up with a question, "Will they please apologise?"
Flashback to 2012: In an interview to a science magazine, the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said, "You know, for example, what is happening in Kudankulam. The atomic energy programme has got into difficulties because these NGOs, mostly I think based in the United States, don't appreciate our country to increase the energy supply." Why should America-based NGOs take interest and fund protests against a project based in faraway India? The answer is obvious: to serve the US interests.
Dr. Singh is a soft-spoken man, used to understatement. He made these remarks in the context of a stir against India's decision to set up two new 1000-MW nuclear reactors in Kudankulam with Russian help. Dr. Singh's statement came in the wake of an ongoing official investigation into the role of several of these foreign funded NGOs in fanning the agitation against the proposed atomic power projects.
Officials at that time said that at least nine NGOs involved in the anti-nuclear agitation in Kudankulam, were under investigation for allegedly "misusing" or "diverting" funds meant for other purposes into the protests. Two of the major beneficiaries of foreign funds actively involved in the protests were the Tuticorin Diocese Association (TDA) and the Tuticorin Multipurpose Social Service Society (TMSSS). As a result of these sponsored agitations, the project suffered a time over-run of six years and a cost escalation of over Rs 10,000 crores.
Fast forward to September 2022. Protests are on against the construction of the Adani Group's Vizhinjam International Transhipment Deepwater Multipurpose Seaport in Kerala's capital Thiruvananthapuram, with some fisherfolk laying siege to the port from the sea and land. According to Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan the protests in some areas seemed "orchestrated". He further added, "Stopping a project of national importance and one that has progressed so much is not rational and cannot be agreed to."
The protests are led by the Catholic Archdiocese of Thiruvananthapuram. Black flags have previously been flown above churches belonging to the Latin Archdiocese in the state capital. Meanwhile, the protesters have turned violent. Adani Ports has filed a petition in the Kerala High Court seeking police protection on the plea that the ongoing agitation was a threat to the life of its employees, and the government was not taking any action in this regard. The High Court has since said the construction at Vizhinjam port cannot be halted.
The project is of great strategic importance to India. The deep-water, multipurpose, international seaport and container transshipment terminal at Vizhinjam is expected to boost India's maritime ambitions significantly. Once complete, Vizhinjam will emerge as a significant competition to the transhipment ports of Colombo, Singapore and Dubai as it is the only transhipment hub in the Indian subcontinent, closest to the international shipping routes, and is centrally located on the Indian coastline.
In nearby Tamil Nadu, Sterlite Copper's plant in Tamil Nadu Thoothukudi district running for over 20 years was forced to shut down in May 2018. Production from Sterlite met 40 per cent of India's copper demand and provided livelihoods to around one lakh families, either directly or indirectly.
Protesters claimed that the emissions and waste from the plant were polluting the environment. The plant has remained shut since. According to Sterlite, the claims were baseless and were propagated by vested interests. Until now, there has been no validated scientific evidence to prove that cancer and marine pollution were caused by the Sterlite plant's discharge.
According to informed sources, Kudankulam protests were planned by a complete agreement between all Christian denominations to shut down very important industries on the pretext of environmental pollution.
Agitation against Sardar Sarovar Dam in Gujarat, opposition to setting up a nuclear reactor in Kukankulam and stir bringing copper producing Sterlite plant in Tamil Nadu to a halt and efforts to stop construction of a deep water sea port in Kerala, have one thing in common, the protests are not spontaneous but, as Kerala Chief Minister, Pinarayi Vijayan said, "orchestrated". By whom and why? It's not difficult to discern.
Modern wars are no longer confined to borders only. While watching for enemies without, one must be wary of those within as well.
(Mr. Balbir Punj is a Former Member of Parliament and a Columnist. He can be reached at: punjbalbir@gmail.com)
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are the personal opinions of the author. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of OneIndia and OneIndia does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.