NAR(mada) bachao

Narmada Dam project is India's longest,biggest and most ambitious water management project taken by govt of India ever. A country which has abundant water resouce but still discrimination in water availability, it was to be one But its unfortunate tat it has always been into controversy.

Recently it was in news cause the popular activitst Medha Patkar went on indefnite hunger strike and was finally forcibly admitted in hospital in critical condition after 9 days of fast. Though it is not sure how much will this affect govt decision to raise the hieght of Dam by another 11 meters, it has defenitely attracted the required attention.

I have been hearing about Medha Patkar and Narmada Bachoa andolan since my childhood. That time I used to wonder why would anybody oppose such move which will only bring only good things to ppl of this country-irrigation of baren land and control of floods....??

But now I things are more clear. With watever progress made in the contruction of Dam, already thousands of people have been displaced. Govt claims it has done needful-relocated the displaced- but reality is something different. Most of the people neither have thier old land nor have been provided with new ones-thanks to the most efficient system in the country-Corruption. With full supply chain integration-from politicains to bureaucrats- there hardly any room for leakage.

Most of us living in cities cannot imagine wat it means. To get a feeling closer to it, just imagine when u leave ur office today evening , u have no where to go. No home, no othe place. More than the physical and material inconvinience caused, it is the psychological impact of being "Worthless" and without base.

Recently two more prominet personalities jumped into this fire-Aamir Khan and Narender Modi.Aamir is known for his perfection in acting and in doing what he beleives. Even though he has always separated himslef from any public statement about his personal views, this time the gravity of situation was such , he could not resist. He clearly stated that it was govt failure, and necessary relief should be done before any futher progress is made on dam construction. May be "Rang de Basanti" has some real life affect on him...!

Narender Modi. The less it is said about him the better it is. His 2nd time victory as CM of Gujrat is often compared with that of Bush's 2nd time victory as President of US-Unfortunate. But I think the first event is was far more derogatory than the 2nd one. Modi, out of the blue declared he will keep fast for 51 hrs to protest. Against what? Why? or why not? Maybe he was also not sure. But probably he thought it could be a good publicity stunt and make an issue out of it as he is not able to address the real issues of Gujrat. Wat a gift he has been to India from the land of Gandhi !

Now the matter is in court's hands, who will review the relief work and then decide wat shud be done. But surely it has shown us the darker side of Democracy and Politicians.

Wake up people of India...!