Tuesday, May 31, 2011

In 1985, the Narmada Bachao Andolan was launched against the Sardar Sarovar Project.

Arindam Chaudhuri: We need Hazare's leadership

From the valley of struggle

Dhadgaon region of Nandoorbar district in Maharshtra has little to distinguish it from others of its kind. Those who flock to the area come mainly from the neighboring villages to get everyday necessities.

Narmada Bachao AndolanBut on October 22, it was different. The people who had gathered in this nondescript area did not come to shop; they were there to reaffirm their commitment to a way of life and the struggle to safeguard it.

On the said da which has recast the paradigm of development the world over, completed 25 years.

At Dhadgaon a huge gathering, including social organisations from 20 states, re-committed itself to fight its battle with greater determination while raising questions on the models of development prevalent in India.

The NBA sprung up in November 1985 when in violation of all rules and regulations, the Sardar Sarovar Project over the Narmada river began displacing lakhs of people. From opposition to one big dam, the movement soon became a synonym for resistance to all such dam projects where people were uprooted without compensation and appropriate rehabilitation.

First proposed in 1946, the Sardar Sarovar Project later became a part of the Narmada Valley Development Plan under which 30 big, 135 medium and 3,000 small dams were proposed to be built over the Narmada and its tributaries. Sardar Sarovar, with a proposed height of 445 feet, is the biggest of these dams. The project, which will finally irrigate 18,000 sq kilometers of land, has displaced people from larges swathes in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra.

In the first phase, besides electricity production, the dam was to irrigate the drought prone areas of Gujarat and Rajasthan. The height of the proposed project was 500 feet. In 1979, the Narmada tribunal, disposing off a host of complaints lodged before it, decided the allocation of water between the four affected states and settled on a height of 455 feet for the dam.

The tribunal also issued strict guidelines for the rehabilitation of the dam oustees. These included, besides a home with all amenities or land in lieu of a home, arable land. However, when the governments concerned began to ignore the tribunal’s recommendations and went ahead with the displacements, the NBA was born.
In the 25 years of its life, there have been many instances when it looked like the movement would fall apart. But every single time those fighting for it came back with renewed vigour and stuck together.

The NBA’s own findings suggest that the harm done by the dam far exceeds the hugely magnified benefits that will follow from it. Plus, governments have brazenly flouted all legal orders which protect the basic and human rights of the oustees to benefit big industrialists while destroying natural resources with impunity.
The movement has also focused on coming up with creative solutions like small lighthouses, the teaching of life skills to children and the promotion of development activities that do no harm to the environment.

In Dhadgaon and in Badwani the next day, it became clear that the oustees had not got their dues and that their connection with the NBA was deep. More than 5,000 people were present at the rally in Dhadgaon.

Children came out with their traditional musical instruments and became an integral part of the rally. As they sang and danced, their fists went up at slogans like “Ladenge, jeetenge” (We shall fight, we shall win).

To cross Dhadgaon and reach Badwani in Madhya Pradesh, the rallyists had to cross as many as ten villages. Even as night fell, the villagers stood by the sides of the paths to welcome those who were part of the rally.

As we speak to people in the affected villages, their sense of betrayal becomes evident. In the holy region of Koteshwar, famous locally for its ancient Shiva temple, the priest Mahadev Puri says, “There is very little compensation for the temple. I understand the pain of those who lost their homes. I pray that the height of the dam is not increased any further or else the loss will be mammoth.”
At Kotdo village, 70-year-old Jayaram says, “Our children are part of the movement. We did not get appropriate compensation.” This reality becomes more evident in villages like Khapadkheda where many claim not to be part of the survey of the affected.

Durji Patedar, resident of Nisarpur village in Madhya Pradesh, says, “So many houses were said to be outside the area which was to drown. Only half of some people’s fields were marked for compensation. The payment we received for our land is blatantly unfair. How can anyone be treated this way?”

NBA leader Medha Patkar says, “There is no truth in the claims of development made for the Sardar Sarovar Project. People have been cheated in the name of rehabilitation and compensation. This is a fight to protect the rights of the marginalised, the tribals and the fishermen. The principles of development being promoted today have only brought ruin."

The anti-dam activist adds: "There have been many instances in the last 25 years when courts have ruled in favour of the NBA, establishing that the questions we are raising are valid. Even today the height of the dam has been stayed at 121.92 metres. It is not only a question of the Sardar Sarovar Dam but of the hundreds of other dams that are to come up around the country."

Patkar further says, "Till a meaningful definition of development is adopted and the valid demand of the oustees upheld, our struggle will continue. This movement is in line with all those other movements of the world that talk of people- oriented development and people’s rights.”

And so the fight continues.

Dr BD SharmaDr BD Sharma
Veteran social activist

“Those affected by the Sardar Sarovar Project have been cheated by the government from the first year itself. The NBA should move forward with greater determination and expand the scope of its struggle. “


Madhu Bhaduri
Madhu Bhaduri
Former politician

“New thinking on development is the greatest gist of the NBA. The movement has taught us about inclusive development.”


sunil
National vice-president,
Samajwadi Jan Parishad.

“The NBA has raised important questions on the inequalities of modern
day development. The movement should have widened its scope and become a force to question today’s system, which has not happened as yet.

Swami AgniveshSwami agnivesh
Chairperson, Bonded Labour Liberation Front

"The NBA has shown the correct path to development. The government should talk to Medha and her associates. If the government does not change its path this movement will intensify."

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Friday, May 27, 2011

A rather unusual take points to the actual realities behind India's newfound buying spree

Arindam Chaudhuri: We need Hazare's leadership

Consumerism: A covert imprisonment

George Orwell – born as Eric Arthur Blair in Motihari, Bihar, on June 25, 1903 – may be laughing in glee in his grave today with a hidden conceit as his words: "Man is the only creature that consumes without producing" ("Animal Farm") ring axiomatically exacting at least in India today. And had he been today at the AC Market near the Gariahat-Rashbehari Avenue crossing in Kolkata, he might have rephrased his words with a biting innuendo about the menace of affluenza.

I went to buy a pair of shorts and a pair of trousers and casually asked the young shop owner about the sales pattern during the pre-Puja days. He shot back ecstatically, "Never, never did we have such a sellers’ market, not at least in my 15 years in retail."

The middle class, more pointedly salaried people in not only private corporate and public sector undertakings but also in government departments and directorates too have the unmistakable feel of affluenza. In every locality, the number of foreign liquor shops rose steadily over the last two decades. Every Saturday or on the eve of clubbed holidays, long queues in the afternoon identify IMFL counters: a reflex of shooting conspicuous consumption which is a threat to the economy. The syndrome is well spread out. Look at the rising sales curve of brand new four wheelers, continuously upping as if never to taper off.

"An average award staff – clerical, technical or running – gets Rs 40,000 a month, after the recent pay revision. This was unthinkable even five years ago," admitted Milan Choudhury, general secretary, West Bengal State Electricity Board (WBSEB) Employees’ Union, affiliated to the INTUC. He was talking about the staff under the West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Company Limited, born out of a split in the WBSEB upon the diktat of Asian Development Bank that clamped such conditions before granting a multi-billion rupee soft loan for revamp of the electricity sector. A class IV staff in any petroleum company in the public sector has a take home pay of Rs 45,000 on an average. Most of them have four wheelers. But what alternative do they have? Pathetic to note as it may be, planners at the helm in South Block in New Delhi or Yojana Bhawan never thought of engaging economic research bodies to suggest ways of putting the huge liquid cash, resulting out of significant salary revision of thousands of white and blue collar workers, in productive use and in beefing up welfare objectives that our governments are constitutionally committed to.

Imagine one whose take home pay was hardly Rs 7,000 a month a decade back now returns home with Rs 32,000 - 45,000 plus. How shall he or she plan the vertically upped income. Shall such people eat money? ("Will Indians eat steel", right wing American economist W. Malenbaum commented after learning about the IInd Five year Plan which spelt construction of three steel plants in Bhillai, Rourkela and Durgapur).

If one strolls along the pathways in a shopping mall, one unwittingly gets educated in what can be defined as built environment of consumerism. But this is not confined to the state-of-the-art shopping malls. The contagion has percolated down to the pavement.

A professor-rank lecturer with a Ph.D in a college today earns Rs 80,000 against the Rs 15,000 he would make in the early 1990s. I won’t take into account the unaccounted income through private tuition. A primary school teacher under the state government begins his career with a take home of Rs 10,500 a month while his predecessor in the early 1980s got at the most Rs 800.

A veteran trade unionist who joined the undivided Communist Party of India in the mid-1950s told me in a pensive mood. "Today, our union members, even in steel plants and Central public sector enterprises, reluctantly take part in nationwide strike even at the call of all premier central trade unions. Loss of one day’s salary is more agonising than the loss of economic freedom to the predatory neo-liberals that rule from Washington and destroy livelihoods of millions the world over, including India. But even in the early 1980s, they used to pressure us for strike calls including indefinite strike actions."

To have more liquid cash does not mean more freedom to choose what to purchase or how to spend. Retail chains dictate us what to buy. Consumerism is an invisible toxin but it’s no use blaming the apparent beneficiaries of affluenza which is unlikely to sustain. Salary-inflation induces some kind of powerlessness that accumulates in our ordinary living to escape like hot gasses. "There is a lot of this splintering off into colonies of the instantly righteous. This is happening to all of us. We’re a sleeping monster," aptly wrote Reverend Billy Talen several months back. The US is bloodier than India but we – the victims of ‘alienation’ via consumerism – too are on the same orbit.

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Monday, May 23, 2011

Crook Twisted Tale: Too many characters, too little coherence

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Mohit Suri tries to cash in on some contemporary developments Crook: Emraan Hashmi(the racist attacks on Indians in Australia) by constructing a story around a reckless and lawless Jay (Emraan Hashmi) who is sent Down Under by Joseph (Gulshan Grover), his guardian. Introducing a couple of love stories into the track, and weaving in some unnecessarily complicated twists, he soon loses his handle on the film’s narrative.

Too many intertwining threads - Suraj loves Suhani (Neha Sharma) but wants to marry Nicole in hopes of getting a permanent residency but Suhani’s sister Sheena has had an affair with Russel who is Nicole’s brother and is now orchestrating the racial attacks (!!!) – weave a tale that cannot decide whether to focus on the love story or the larger message. The performances from the new comers are average and Hashmi doesn’t leave much of an impact either. As a result, the message and the medium both are wasted.

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Friday, May 20, 2011

Jennifer Aniston: Sexy, single' but ready to mingle?

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Jennifer AnistonThe 40-year-old actress, Jennifer Aniston, climbed ahead of all the younger actresses to top the list of ‘Hollywood’s Sexiest Woman’. At a press conference, Jen spoke about women of the present generation being independent enough to not want any man’s support to live or even settle down with to have babies. Having had broken relationships and gone through several heartbreaks, if that’s how the sexiest-yet-single woman, Jennifer, consoles herself; good for you girl!


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Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Eat Pray Love: An endless voyage of self discovery

Arindam Chaudhuri: We need Hazare's leadership

Pray, no more clichés!

An adaptation of Elizabeth Gilbert’s “Eat Pray Love”, this idealistic movie is all about self-love. Liz, played by Julia Roberts, separates from her husband, and goes straight into a lover’s arms, only to realise a few fights later that a new boyfriend wasn’t the solution to her woes. Travel, on the other hand, was what her soul yearned for. And so she packs off for a year-long trip to Italy, India and Bali. In Italy she gorges on pizza and spaghetti, in India she learns to meditate and forgive herself, and in Bali she meets the sensuous Javier Bardem and learns to love again.

My grouse against this film is its love for clichés. It bothered me that among the few people Liz meets in India is a minor girl forced into an arranged marriage, and how everything is dirty, and street urchins, mosquitoes and buffaloes are everywhere. Director Ryan Murphy takes us through the film at an incredibly leisurely pace till Liz reaches Bali, where finally “Eat Pray Love” becomes a movie that we want to watch.

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