NBA, Medha Patkar, Aamir and Modi: My take
During Narmada Bachao Andoloan (NBA) recent protest in capital, Aamir Khan arrived at Jantar Mantar and assured his support for the movement. 'I do not know about the technicalities involved in raising the height of the dam. What I do know is that farmers have been displaced from their land and they have lost their livelihood. Till the people who have already been displaced by the dam are not rehabilitated, the height of the dam should not be raised,' Khan said. There were lot of criticism as well as praises for his actions. I appreciate that he could empathize their pains and assured his support voraciously.
Dams are marketed as modern temples in independent India. In the 50+ years of independence, a lot of dams are built to harness the fertile rivers. For outside world, the advantages of the dam alone is well propagated. But there is a flip side of the story. NBA is one such movement which fights for proper rehabilitation of the people (of threee state Gujarat, Madya Pradhesh and Maharastra) who got displaced by these dams. Narmada valley is filled with dams (see the picture below). The point of contention now is Sardar Sarovar dam. The state governments got clearance from supreme court for increasing the height of dam. This proposed height increase implies displacement of 35000 families. Red tapism in government machinery in the rehabilitation is reason to worry. NBA and Medha Patkar fights for proper rehabilitation of these people. From Medha patkar's words, the proposed increase in dam height could submerge huge area comparable to the area between delhi and agra. The damage is quite extraordinary.
Courtesy: Rediff.com
Recent protest also saw the politicisation of the whole problem. Gujarat governemnt and Narendra Modi successfully projected the increasing dam's height as the pride issue of farmers. Against the supreme court interim order of stopping of dam construction, Modi went for fast, which is hightly politically motivated rather than empathizing with the cause of people. He maligned the image of NBA as movement against building dams. NBA is concentrating on justice to those people who rightful place are going to be filled with dam water. There were protests all around in gujarat againt Medha and Aamir. There were funny quips by some politician to protest against Aamir's forthcoming movie. All I could say is: Please dont politicise people's movement.
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4 comments:
First, I have to say I loved the movie Lagaan.
35,000 families are a lot of people. If I were a politician, I would really want to make sure the families were well taken care of before telling them they have to move. Otherwise, you may be trying to find the person who killed the politician out of 35,000+ suspects.
@John....
Happy to hear that you had seen Aamir movie. thats wonderful.
Yep, well said reg politician, if he hurts people feeling continously, god alone has to help him. I dunno how modi will have his future. he become a politician who lives by doing all sorts of things which are called cunning politics...
god save him!
Do we remeber when did the protest actually start ??
@rookie_journo, I really dunno when did the movement start? But i am happy that in mother country, there are still people who fight for people in gandhian way
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