SACW | 14 Apr 2006 | Mullah Muscle in Pakistan ; Nepalis for democracy; Police brutality in Bangladesh; India: Further Militarising Kashmir; Trigger happy in Aligarh, Ayurveda Mumbo-jumbo, big money - big dams

Harsh Kapoor aiindex at mnet.fr
Thu Apr 13 20:02:34 CDT 2006


South Asia Citizens Wire | 14 April, 2006 | Dispatch No. 2236

[1]  Pakistan:
   -  MMA and telefilm on jihad (Editorial, The Daily Times)
   -  Officially sanctioned rallies promoting sectarianism (Press Release, HRCP)
[2]  Nepal: the underbelly of the beast (Maryann Bird, Kanak Mani Dixit)
[3]  Bangladesh: Tell us why Kansat people being killed? (Mahfuz Anam)
[4]  India - Kashmir: Killing of innocents - 
arming and militarizing civilian population 
(Editorial, Kashmir Times)
[5]  India: Aligarh police shot to kill  (Seema Mustafa)
[6]  India: The State of Ayurveda: Examining the Evidence (Meera Nanda)
[7]  India: The Struggle for rehabilitation of 
people displaced by the Sardar Sarovar Project
(i) Big Money, Big Dams (Himanshu Upadhyaya)
(ii) National Campaign for Peoples Right to 
Information supports the Narmada Bachao Andolan

___

[1]  PAKISTAN

The Daily Times
April 13, 2006

Editorial

MMA AND TELEFILM ON JIHAD

The clerical MNAs of Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal 
(MMA) have raised a hue and cry in parliament 
over a 100-minute tele-film shown by PTV on March 
23. They claim that it "ridiculed the concept of 
jihad at the behest of the Musharraf government 
and the United States". One look at the content 
of the film, Mujahid, written by Shahid Nadeem 
and directed by Madeeha Gauhar, will tell us why 
the clerics are so riled. It is the story of 
travails of an urban lower middle class family 
whose son disappears, only to be found later 
fighting for a militia in the Afghan civil war. 
They trace him to a clandestine jihadi training 
camp, but he refuses to return. The boy finally 
returns after the 2001 fall of the Taliban; but 
now he can't reintegrate into his own society. 
His old friends look at him as an alien creature 
and the militant group that had recruited him 
refuses to let go of him. After the boy is 
reclaimed by the affection of his family the 
terrorists threaten him. This time he refuses and 
dies trying to prevent the terrorist bombing of a 
hospital.

Needless to say, before the motion in parliament, 
Shahid Nadeem and Madeeha Gauhar have been 
threatened; so has PTV. But, instead of standing 
up to this blackmail, the government is, as 
usual, shying away from doing its duty. Actually, 
"culture" is the last thing the government is 
bothered about. What the film has shown is part 
of Pakistan's dark reality. Such 'jihadi' stories 
have taken place in all communities, but the 
media is not supposed to talk about them. If the 
MMA is bothered about "taste" why doesn't it 
object to some culturally poisonous "soaps" 
excreted by the private TV channels these days? 
The fact is that Pakistan's true popular and 
moderate culture is threatened by another imposed 
"culture of violence", the jihadi one. And it is 
jihadi culture the MMA wants to defend.

The government should afford due protection to 
all artists, especially creative people involved 
in public and civil society causes like Mr Nadeem 
and Ms Gauhar, and stand up to the immoderate and 
unenlightened clerics who threaten them and all 
of Pakistan. *

o o o

Press Release
Lahore, 10 April 2006

Human Rights Commission of Pakistan

OFFICIALLY SANCTIONED RALLIES PROMOTING SECTARIANISM

LAHORE: There can be little doubt of official 
connivance for the spread of sectarianism and 
hatred in society, after the rally organized by 
the Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) in Islamabad 
recently, apparently with full administrative 
support.

HRCP has long stated that the authorities have 
played a direct role in the spread of intolerance 
and militancy. The latest SSP meeting comes as 
proof of this.

At the rally, which took place last Friday, 
literature preaching jihad and hatred against 
Shias was openly distributed. Gory video compact 
discs of American soldiers being beheaded in Iraq 
were sold. As hundreds of riot police looked on, 
participants raised slogans against Shias. 
Organizers thanked the Islamabad administration 
for allowing the rally, which was held under 
floodlights, at a bus depot.

It is especially shocking that such a rally was 
permitted in an environment within which peaceful 
attempts to assemble by political activists 
linked to mainstream parties, journalists and 
other citizens have repeatedly been thwarted by 
police thugs bearing batons. Yet in this case, no 
arrests were reported nor any apparent attempt 
made to stop the gathering, despite the open 
violation of laws against the preaching of hatred 
or the incitement of violence.

It is obvious that there can be no end to 
extremism and hatred in society while official 
policies promote its spread. In the past too, 
religious zealots have been able to spread terror 
and mayhem in major cities, while the State 
machinery has looked on.

The pledges to usher in an era of tolerance or 
'enlightened moderation' are as such obviously 
nothing more than a façade intended for foreign 
audiences. In the meanwhile citizens continue to 
confront the terrible violence inflicted by 
sectarian groups which is today growing more 
widespread across the country and adversely 
affecting the lives of millions.

Iqbal Haider
Secretary-General

____


[2]

opendemocracy.net
13 April 2006

NEPAL: THE UNDERBELLY OF THE BEAST
by Maryann Bird, Kanak Mani Dixit

"I love my country, but I hate the government." 
Kanak Mani Dixit reports from a Nepali prison. 
First, Maryann Bird puts the Nepali struggle for 
democracy in context.


Ending a nearly two-month holiday, Nepal's 
embattled ruler, King Gyanendra, returned to 
Kathmandu late on 12 April amid speculation that 
he might take the first step toward defusing days 
of violent clashes between security forces and 
pro-democracy demonstrators. The protests have 
been the most intense since Gyanendra seized 
power from the government of prime minister Sher 
Bahadur Deuba in February 2005, accusing it of 
failing to restore peace in Nepal, which has seen 
a decade of Maoist insurgency and thousands of 
deaths.

The king is due to deliver his traditional Nepali 
new-year message on Friday 14 April, prompting 
hope that he will use it to reach out to his 
opponents. "If the king is getting his 
information correctly, and if he is watching the 
situation correctly", a Kathmandu-based diplomat 
told Reuters news service; "the common 
denominator in all the opposition against him is 
that it is he who needs to take the initiative to 
end this crisis."

Gyanendra, however, has routinely taken a hard 
line against protesters - as the security forces 
have done over the past eight days. Curfews have 
been imposed, and many demonstrators have been 
held for violating them. Near the country's 
supreme-court building on 13 April, troops 
baton-charged and tear-gassed a group of hundreds 
of protesting lawyers. They, like the seven-party 
alliance against the king, want to see a return 
to multi-party democracy, with executive powers 
vested in an all-party government.

Meanwhile, local authorities in Kathmandu have 
issued letters of detention to fifteen 
human-rights activists and civil-society leaders, 
following their refusal to pay fines stemming 
from their participation in the protests. 
Condemning the detentions, a "ceasefire 
monitoring civic group" demanded the immediate 
release of the fifteen, as well as the lifting of 
restrictions on peaceful assembly and an end to 
the curfews and arrests.

Those held include former supreme-court justice 
Laxman Prasad Aryal, former speaker of the house 
of representatives Daman Nath Dhungana, and 
several rights activists, doctors and journalists.

One of those journalists, Kanak Mani Dixit, the 
distinguished editor of the Kathmandu-based south 
Asian magazine Himal, wrote the following report 
for the Nepali Times from inside the Duwakot 
armed police barracks.

Maryann Bird
* * *

Taken in by Kathmandu's royal regime with two 
dozen other protestors last week for wilfully 
(and with prior announcement) breaking the curfew 
order, this writer had an opportunity to see how 
a "militarising", autocratic state machine can 
ride roughshod over some of the weakest members 
of Nepalese society. It was an opportunity to 
take a look at the underbelly of the monster that 
government can be. What we have seen during our 
incarceration is something that the privileged, 
with their contacts in high places or money to 
buy safe passage, rarely care to see or 
understand.

There are three types of inmates in this 
makeshift detention centre at the Duwakot armed 
police barracks outside Kathmandu, Nepal's 
capital. The human-rights activists, who are 
relatively well known, have little fear of 
violence once they are taken in. Then there are 
political activists, both senior and junior, who 
receive some protection from party affiliations 
and linkages.

But also here in Duwakot is an entire category of 
true innocents. Most of these young adults, some 
of them mere boys, are migrants who have left 
their families on faraway hills and plains to 
work at menial jobs. They represent the rural 
poor of all ethnicities and castes, but are 
united in their lack of influence anywhere in the 
state structure. This lack of agency is only 
matched by their absolute poverty. The trauma 
that these boys of Duwakot have faced, and are 
facing, exists at several levels.

It starts with the police chase on the streets, 
the attacks with batons and staffs, the abuse, 
and the bundling into the back of trucks. Once in 
the holding center, toilet facilities are 
non-existent. Then the young men are transported 
from one detention center to another, and 
provided with no information whatsoever. They are 
given nothing to eat for more than a day, and 
when they finally are fed, the food is of the 
lowest grade imaginable. There is palpable fear 
that authorities in need of proving Maoist 
"infiltration" of the democratic movement can, 
with the flick of a pen, declare you an insurgent 
and do away with your life and prospects.

Who will tell your family, who will inform your 
employer, where is the lawyer or activist to 
speak for you? Who is to defend you, to charge 
the regime with wrongful imprisonment, to seek a 
writ of habeas corpus, to demand release and 
reparation?

Dambar Nepali is 14, and from Udayapur, in the 
hills of eastern Nepal. He works as a 
construction labourer and was taken in by the 
police and beaten while coming home from work. 
Ramesh Basnet, 23, from Dhading, just west of 
Kathmandu, was returning home from the printing 
press where he works. Ram Kumar Tamang drives a 
microbus, license plate 4266, and was crossing 
the road during a curfew when he was detained. 
Biraj Sharma, 18, was loitering outside a 
roadside shop in an area outside curfew limits. 
"The policemen were like demons", he recalls. 
"They kicked my head as if it was a football."

Others were resting inside a bus at the bus stop 
where they work as cleaners when they were 
dragged out: Dhruba Timilsina, 17, of Hetuada; 
Buddha Lama, 16, of Sindhupalchok; Ramesh Thapa 
Magar, 17, and Ram Lama, 20, of Chapagaon. From 
Duwakot, they have all been moved elsewhere.

Individuals who are in the lowest-class bracket 
in detention must use the toilet that is furthest 
away, and get the rice that is the worst. It will 
be important for the International Committee of 
the Red Cross to determine their fate and 
whereabouts.

Some policemen can be fine, sensitive 
individuals. But they take orders from an 
insensitive state run by a ruler who has sought 
again and again to prove his contempt for the 
people of Nepal. When autocracy and 
militarisation is combined with contempt, those 
without legal recourse suffer unseen and unheard. 
This is one more reason for a quick return to 
democracy, pluralism and peace.

Ramesh Basnet told me the other day, before he 
was taken away: "This turns out to be the kind of 
country I was born into. I love my country, but I 
hate the government. I have not picked up a 
stone; I have not burned a tyre in protest. Why 
am I here, and where will they take me?"

____


[3]

The Daily Star
April 14, 2006

Commentary
TELL US WHY KANSAT PEOPLE BEING KILLED?
by Mahfuz Anam

We have seen a lot of brutality by the police and 
other law enforcers in this country. But nothing 
can compare to the mindless killing that has been 
going on at Kansat during the last four months. 
The happenings at Kansat boggle the mind. Seldom, 
if ever, have we seen such police brutality upon 
our usually meek and peace-loving villagers. They 
have been shot at, mercilessly beaten, violently 
attacked and indiscriminately arrested. In the 
last few days, they have had their houses raided 
and personal belongings looted. Now most of the 
men are away from their homes and women are 
coming out to agitate. Why? What necessitated 
this ferocious behaviour by our police and that 
also under a democratic dispensation and by an 
elected government?

Here are some facts about the killings in Kansat 
that may help to wake us up to the immorality and 
shocking nature of the situation. First, two 
people were killed on January 4 followed by 
killing of seven on the 23rd of the same month. 
Then four were killed on April 6 and another was 
injured, who later died on April 12. Finally, six 
were killed the day before yesterday. A total of 
20 innocent lives lost for the 'crime' of 
agitating for adequate electricity supply so that 
they could carry on their farming properly. All 
these deaths occurred due to police firing that 
can only be termed unprovoked, for there is 
absolutely no evidence of the villagers resorting 
to any sort of violent action that could have 
called for such brutality and response of 'final 
resort'.

Given the nature of the police action, one is 
almost compelled to ask as to whether there is an 
insurgency going on at Kansat. Has that area been 
taken over by our 'enemies'? Are those being 
killed so recklessly citizens of Bangladesh? Or 
are they some aliens occupying our land that we 
can kill as we please. Otherwise how could police 
repeatedly resort to firing when all the usual 
tactics of crowd management were not applied? 
First, what sorts of 'weapons' did the villagers 
carry that police needed to open fire? Second, 
what threat could stick-wielding villagers pose 
that police had to shoot to kill? Third, what 
measures of crowd control were taken to contain 
the agitators?

In the beginning they just demonstrated. When 
police attacked them brutally they started 
throwing brickbats and carrying sticks. Later 
they cut down trees to block roads and in some 
cases even dug up road sections. In no instance 
were they carrying any firearms or known to have 
used explosives or cocktails. To date, the police 
themselves did not make such a claim. So where 
was the danger that necessitated opening fire? 
Not once, twice, or thrice, but on four separate 
occasions interspersed by several weeks at a 
time. Do the actions of the agitators of Kansat 
justify the reaction by the police? No, not if we 
believe in democracy and in the inalienable right 
of the people to dissent and express that 
dissension in a peaceful manner. The question is 
whether the present government believes the same. 
If we are to go by their actions in Kansat, we 
are forced to seriously doubt that.

There is absolutely no adequate explanation for 
treating our villagers in this manner except of 
an arrogant mindset that treats every dissenting 
voice as that of an 'enemy'. The present 
government has become so used to applying brute 
force to contain opposition rallies and 
demonstrations that for them every agitation is 
inevitably the product of opposition 'conspiracy' 
and as such must be dealt with the maximum force.

Till today, to the best of our knowledge, the 
government or the ruling party has not bothered 
to sit for a moment to think what is going on at 
Kansat. Why has this area, which had hitherto 
been unknown to most people of the country and 
never had any reputation of being a hotbed of 
agitation, should suddenly become so rebellious? 
Between January 4 and today a good four months 
and 10 days have elapsed, but no initiative of 
any sort has been taken to talk to the villagers 
or to engage them in some sort of a 
problem-solving dialogue. No minister or ruling 
party leader of any consequence visited the area 
to find out for oneself what is happening there. 
Are these the characteristics of a representative 
government? Even the local MP, who is from the 
ruling party, did not sit with his own electorate 
(those who voted him to the office) to find a 
solution. In fact he has already dubbed them 
'terrorists'. (See the story on Page 12).

In democratic systems elsewhere, governments have 
been known to fall for far less. A few 
unnecessary and unjustifiable deaths in the hands 
of government agencies wrought havoc on elected 
governments that truly believe in being peoples' 
representatives. But ours of course is a 
democracy with a difference. Here we do not seem 
to elect leaders who want to serve the people but 
to rule over them, and if the 'stupid' people 
have the insolence to misbehave (like agitating) 
then they need to be punished and even killed.

Here 20 people have already been killed by law 
enforcers and yet there is no inquiry, no talk of 
any minister's resignation, no explanation by the 
government and no sign from anybody in power that 
something unusual is happening in a small rural 
area 27km off the nearest town, Chapainawabganj. 
A few deaths don't seem to matter in our 
democracy, especially if those are of poor people 
of remote villages. Our leaders are far too high 
and mighty for small things like peoples' lives 
to bother them.

____


[4]

Kashmir Times
April 11, 2006

Editorial

KILLING OF INNOCENTS
METHOD OF ARMING AND MILITARIZING CIVILIAN POPULATION PROVING DETERIMENTAL

The continuum of militancy related violence and 
brutal killings of civilians in militancy 
infested areas of Jammu and Kashmir are a cause 
for concern and not only invite condemnation from 
peace loving citizens and those at the helm of 
affairs but also some re-introspection about the 
direction of the ongoing peace process. 
Obviously, the initial phases of the peace 
process, which is still in its infancy is not 
expected to silence the guns. But the gruesome 
killings of innocents, especially in rural remote 
hilly areas, where families are slain as part of 
political vendetta, is not a healthy sign for the 
peace process. While onus of many killings lies 
on the militant organizations; and their 
brutality in massacres, in slitting throats and 
beheading or mutilating bodies needs to be looked 
at with contempt, it needs to be remembered that 
much of the responsibility also falls on the 
government, which has only encouraged such 
killings due to its ill-conceived and 
non-pragmatic policies vis-Š-vis the Kashmir 
problem, which is essentially a political 
problem, militancy simply being an off-shoot of 
it. It is evident that most of the killings stem 
from the bizarre policy of militarizing more and 
more civilians in the militancy infested areas, 
which not only encourages a regime of tit-for-tat 
and bullet for bullet policy but also makes the 
lives of civilians more and more vulnerable. 
Whether it is the incident of beheading a man 
alleged to be a security forces' informer in 
Pulwama or the Arnas killings on Sunday, it turns 
out that poor innocents, who become more and more 
pliable in the hands of both state and non-state 
agencies, become targets of a policy of 
vindictiveness. The militarization of civilians 
has been more a cause of provocation than an 
element to induce prevention in most cases. The 
entire plan of arming surrendered militants, 
forming village defence committees, increasing 
use of civilians in counter insurgency operations 
by co-option as informers, couriers and sources 
is both ludicrous and sinister since it exposes 
innocent civilians, who are unarmed or not 
adequately protected to greater risk of being 
killed. This has also encouraged a practice of 
civilians forced to play the role of double 
agents, thus not only questioning the very 
effectiveness of the policy but also making 
civilians more and more vulnerable to harassment 
from both sides. Before the government 
functionaries begin to put the entire onus of the 
violence on militant organizations and ask them 
to shun the gun in the name of peace, it is 
imperative that the administration along with its 
security apparatus also engage itself in the task 
of self scrutiny. It is important to bear in mind 
that it takes two to clap. The hit and trial 
method of arming and militarizing a civilian 
population has certainly proved detrimental to 
the interests of counter-insurgency, least of all 
peace. There may be some short-term benefits here 
and there but in the longer run, the interests of 
both the security agencies and the civilians have 
been harmed.

____


[5]

Asian Age
12 April 2006

ALIGARH POLICE SHOT TO KILL
by Seema Mustafa

New Delhi, April 12: Seven Muslims were shot dead 
and 18 others of the same community were injured 
in the police firing in Aligarh on clashing mobs. 
All the dead were shot above the waist in a case 
of excessive police action, with a fact-finding 
mission by the Minorities Commission confirming 
this in a report which will soon be presented to 
the government with a list of recommendations.

In a damaging revelation for the district police 
and administration, the inspector-general, Kanpur 
range, who had been sent by the state government 
to inquire into the incident, has said that the 
police firing was not necessary and there was no 
justification for it.  He has said that he had 
sufficient evidence to prove that the situation 
could have been brought under control without the 
police resorting to firing if the administration 
had acted with a little intelligence and 
responsibility. The Mulayam Singh Yadav 
government in Uttar Pradesh, worried about the 
political fallout of the firing, has acted 
quickly to transfer the district magistrate, the 
senior superintendent of police as well as the 
SP, City, and the additional district magistrate. 
This, informed sources said, was in itself prima 
facie evidence that the state government was 
aware of the situation and had accepted the 
findings of the official inquiry committee that 
innocent persons had lost their lives because of 
a "clear case of high-handedness" and totally 
avoidable action by the police.

The Minorities Commission fact-finding mission 
has confirmed that all the shots were fired above 
the waist, hitting the victims directly on the 
upper parts of the body in what is then described 
as an intent to kill. The police at that time had 
justified the action to visiting reporters, 
insisting that there was no option left but to 
open fire. Of course, the fact that the victims 
had died because the police had not kept to the 
well-specified regulations is being kept a 
closely-guarded secret, with no government-level 
confirmation, although the news had spread like 
wildfire at the time through the streets of 
Aligarh.

At the time of the incident the crowds were 
merely pelting stones at police vehicles, with 
the top-level inquiry now maintaining that the 
situation could have been brought under control 
without the excessive action. The sources said 
that all the dead and injured belonged to one 
community, suggesting a communal angle in the 
Aligarh administration's action.

The tension in Aligarh has now acquired a 
Muslim-versus-police hue, with the Mulayam Singh 
Yadav government hoping to defuse it with the 
action taken against senior officials at both the 
city and district levels. The latest instructions 
call for the police to use rubber bullets to 
control mobs, as these will incapacitate victims 
for a while but not kill or maim them. Police 
sources said, however, that rubber bullets are 
always in short supply and are almost never 
available for use.

The sources said that the officer in charge is 
directly responsible for the order to fire, and 
pointed out that even today the police manual 
does not limit the firing to below the waist as 
has been recommended by several committees 
appointed to look into police excesses in the 
past. In fact, the phrase still used is to "fire 
to effect", although the new instructions have 
directed the use of rubber bullets for 
controlling unarmed mobs.


____


[6]

www.sacw.net  - April 11, 2006

THE STATE OF AYURVEDA: EXAMINING THE EVIDENCE

by Meera Nanda

Charaka Samhita, the ancient textbook of Ayurveda 
(third or second centuries BCE), doesn't mince 
words when it comes to the subject of quacks. 
Charaka, the legendary healer from India's 
antiquity and the editor of the Samhita 
(compendium) that bears his name, calls them 
"imposters who wear the garb of physiciansŠ [who] 
walk the earth like messengers of death." These 
fake doctors are "unlearned in scriptures, 
experience and knowledge of curative operationsŠ. 
but like to boast of their skills before the 
uneducatedŠ" Wise patients, Charaka advises, 
"should always avoid those foolish men with a 
show of learning Š they are like snakes 
subsisting on air."

These words, written more than two thousand years 
ago, bring to mind those who like to play doctor 
on Indian TV these days. The most famous of all, 
Swami Ramdev, doles out medical advice to 
millions of Indians who tune into his TV show, 
attend his yoga camps and buy his Ayurvedic 
drugs. He offers "complete cure," "in weeks, if 
not in days," of "diseases from A to Z," from 
"common cold to cancers," including cholera, 
diabetes, glaucoma, heart disease, kidney 
disease, leprosy, liver diseaseŠ.so on and so 
forth. There is practically nothing that his 
method of Divya Yoga, alone, or in combination 
with his Ayurvedic formulations, does not promise 
to cure. And all his "miraculous" cures are not 
merely "confirmed by science," but are, indeed, 
"science in its purest form." (All quotations are 
from the official website of Swami Ramdev.). The 
swami is not alone in making such fantastic 
claims. Yoga and Ayurveda are being mass-marketed 
to India's growing middle classes as never 
before. Putting on a "show of learning" by 
"wearing the garb" of healers and scientists 
seems to improve the sales-pitch.

The recent exposé of false labeling of drugs and 
exploitation of workers at the Swami's 
Haridwar-based pharmacy created a huge uproar, 
laying bare the limitations of all parties 
involved. But all the noise and sloganeering is 
drowning out the real questions that must be 
asked not just of Ramdev, but of all traditional 
or alternative medicines: How effective are these 
medicines in curing the diseases they claim to 
cure? Can their medical claims pass the muster of 
rigorously conducted clinical tests? Even if the 
label on the bottle scrupulously identified each 
and every ingredient, the question still remains 
if the drugs are effective and safe, when 
measured by the standards that apply to 
conventional, "allopathic" medicines.

THE FACTS OF the controversy regarding Swami 
Ramdev are well-known. In April 2005, Swami 
Ramdev's Divya Yoga Mandir Trust fired 115 
workers who had been protesting against poor 
wages and deplorable working conditions. These 
workers complained of having to collect and 
manually grind human skulls and bones, otter 
(udbialo) testicles and antelope horns - work 
that Brahmins amongst them found polluting. 
Acting on these complaints, Brinda Karat, 
Communist Party leader, Member of Parliament and 
feminist, sent samples of two formulations meant 
to treat epilepsy and sexual weakness to relevant 
government authorities for testing. In January 
2006 the results came out positive: the samples 
were found to contain human and animal DNA. The 
Swami's "herbal medicines" had been delivering 
something not very herbal to countless consumers, 
many of whom happen to be fastidious vegetarians.
[ . . . ] .
FULL TEXT AT:
http://www.sacw.net/free/meernaandaApril2006.html

____


[7]

Tehelka.com
April 15 , 2006

  BIG MONEY, BIG DAMS

Why is it that pro-dam governments and 
corporations have repeatedly defaulted on 
rehabilitation, while they have been keen not to 
default on debts they owe financial investors, 
asks Himanshu Upadhyaya

For the last fortnight hundreds of victims from 
the Narmada Valley have been peacefully camping 
on the streets of Delhi. They've been routinely 
beaten, dragged and arrested by the police. 
Frustrated by the insensitive government, Medha 
Patkar, Jamsing Nargave from village Amlali in 
Badwani (MP) and Bhagwatibai Jatpuria from 
village Nissarpur in Dhar (MP) went on a 
fast-unto-death since March 29, 2006. Hence, It's 
crucial to look at the claims made in support of 
the big dam, especially by the Centre and the 
Gujarat government led by Hindutva Hriday Samrat 
Narendra Modi.

Financial insolvency has plagued the multi-crore 
Sardar Sarovar Project since its inception. The 
Narmada Control Authority (NCA) gave permission 
to raise the height of the dam upto 121.92m (from 
its present height of 110.64m) and the 
construction work, continues despite the chairman 
of the review committee of NCA, Union Water 
Resources Minister, Saif-ud-din Soz, calling the 
decision 'premature'. So it's the need of the 
hour to examine the unanswered financial 
questions, lest the Gujarat economy face an 
unprecedented crisis. Besides, if the dam height 
is increased, 35,000 families will be uprooted 
from their land and homes - is this not a 
violation of the rehabilitation guidelines issued 
by the Supreme Court?

The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) stated 
in a report for the year ending on March 31, 2001 
that Gujarat's fiscal position is seriously 
deteriorating. It indicted Sardar Sarovar Narmada 
Nigam Limited (SSNNL) for spending a huge amount 
towards interest charges and servicing debt 
liabilities. The CAG report clearly indicts SSNNL 
for its indulgence in imprudent ways of resource 
mobilisation that made it to spend Rs 2,413.98 
crore on interest payments and debt servicing. 
The total expenditure incurred on the project as 
on March 31, 2001 was Rs 10,978.63 crore. Thus, 
almost 22 percent of the total expenditure was 
spent merely on servicing debt liabilities and 
paying interest charges.

Concluding the scathing audit review, the CAG 
states, "The SSP was approved without outlining 
the sources of raising the funds and cost 
elements towards borrowing. The SSNNL borrowed in 
an ad hoc manner and cash flow was not worked out 
accuratelyŠ SSNNL incurred avoidable interest 
charged as a result of higher rate of interest 
and retaining huge amount of borrowed funds in 
short term deposits."

The blame for cost escalation is often put on the 
Narmada Bachao Andolan, arguing that had they not 
stopped the dam construction, for six years 
during 1994-2000, the costs wouldn't have risen. 
However, on close examination, this turns out to 
be a clever propaganda trick employed by dam 
builders that protects their profligacy. What is 
disturbing is the crusade unleashed by political 
parties in Gujarat that are rallying behind the 
surreptitious way the establishment has managed 
to get the clearance to raise the dam height, be 
it the communal bjp or 'secular' Congress. This 
blind faith on the project will not only betray 
the citizens of Saurashtra and Kutch, but also 
violate the most basic principles of economics.

For 1993-94, the budgetary support from Gujarat 
to the SSP was Rs 749 crore, while in the year 
1996-97, it was Rs 567 crore (whereas the 
irrigation budget was Rs 700 crore). In 1998-99, 
it went up to Rs 955 crore, while in 2000-01, it 
was a whopping Rs 3,730 crore. Shall we say that 
the budgetary allocation of the Gujarat 
government had influenced the Supreme Court 
judgement in 2000 that allowed the dam 
construction to go ahead in stages, putting the 
riders of 'resettlement and rehabilitation' six 
months prior to likely submergence?

Even in 1995, it was evident that SSP was not 
financially viable. A confidential study 
conducted by the Gujarat government found that 
the SSP would be delayed beyond 2010, primarily 
because of the non-availability of requisite 
funds on time. What the study had found is 
revealing: "The trend clearly indicates SSNNL's 
ability to raise funds through this source (bond 
issues guaranteed by tripartite agreement) on a 
sustained basis is doubtful. It is unlikely that 
the irrigation water would be priced in a manner 
that would reflect its true cost. The power 
component is relatively small, and would be used 
mainly for peak load requirements." The study 
predicted, "Once the principal repayment 
commence, a large portion would be eaten up by 
the debt servicing requirements." However, these 
cautious words fall on deaf ears, unable to 
accept the justified criticism of the project.

Six years later, India's supreme audit 
institution, CAG (2002: 57), has criticised the 
mounting debt obligations, "SSNNL's average 
annual debt liability works out to be Rs 944.77 
crore. The state government had directed the 
SSNNL (January 1996) to create a sinking fund out 
of its own resources with ad hoc contribution of 
Rs 50 crore annually. The SSNNL, however, never 
created such a fund nor proposed any alternative 
arrangement for liquidating the debt liability 
arising out of issue of bonds. SSNNL, thus, 
without any systematic plan for redemption of 
bonds, went on borrowing for redemption of 
earlier debts, which resulted in abnormal 
increase in the expenditure on servicing the debt.

Last week, debating the Narmada dam in the 
Gujarat Assembly and showering eloquent praise on 
the Modi government, Congress chief whip, 
Balwantsinh Rajput quoted figures on how much the 
SSNNL has spent during the last three years on 
interest payments and debt servicing. The figures 
quoted are Rs 717 crore, Rs 944 crore and Rs 766 
crore, respectively for 2002-03, 2003-04 and 
2004-05. He put forth on the floor of the house 
the cumulative figure of SSNNL having spent Rs 
2,428 crore in three years and invented the 
familiar stick to beat the critics of SSP with, 
by shouting, "Honourable speaker sir, our state 
is loosing Rs 2.22 crore on interest payments. We 
must not allow the Union Water Resources Minister 
to review the decision of raising the dam height 
because delay on the dam construction adds to 
huge erosion of the state exchequer due to 
interest payments."

I want to ask him, what was the budgetary 
allocation from Gujarat to SSP in the annual plan 
of 2004-'05? It was Rs 900 crore. And how much of 
this has gone to the bank accounts of a few 
bondholders at the cost of the citizens of the 
state? A whopping Rs 766 crore, as per his own 
admission on the floor of the house. Shouldn't 
the people - and most of whom can't afford to be 
SSNNL bondholders - stop paying taxes when the 
resources of the state exchequer are diverted to 
the coffers of a few financial investors? 
Moreover, it's inexplicable, why should the 
opposition party sanctify such a huge erosion of 
the state's funds?

Besides, how much has been spent on interest 
payments and debt servicing as on March 31, 2005? 
Taking into consideration figures from the 
Assembly debate, as well as CAG's figures on the 
debt liability of SSNNL, it turns out to be Rs 
5,405 crore.

So shouldn't we ask Union Minister of Social 
Justice and Empowerment Meira Kumar to please 
stand up and answer that, while the state 
governments and central government's building the 
Sardar Sarovar Dam has spent 28 percent of the 
total expenditure (Rs 18831.24 crore) on the 
project as on March 31, 2005, how much has been 
spent on resettlement and rehabilitation of the 
project affected families from the submergence 
villages? Why is it that governments have 
repeatedly defaulted on the rehabilitation front, 
while the dam building corporation and the 
governments backing it have taken keen interest 
on not to default the debts that it owes to the 
financial investors?

We, the people, must ask: is it for progress or 
profligacy that the establishment loves building 
dams with such an infatuated and brutish 
obsession?

o o o

National Campaign for Peoples Right to Information
C17-A Munirka, New Delhi 67, India

6 April 2006

STATEMENT IN SUPPORT OF THE NARMADA BACHAO ANDOLAN

The National Campaign for Peoples Right to 
Information strongly protests the distortion of 
facts and efforts at spreading misinformation 
regarding the status of rehabilitation of people 
displaced by the Sardar Sarovar Project. Though 
the homes of thousands of families are threatened 
with submersion, most of these families have yet 
to be given alternate land and otherwise suitably 
rehabilitated. And yet, government committees 
continue to turn a blind eye and play around with 
"official data" that is clearly inaccurate. The 
consequent clearance for raising the height of 
the dam from 110 metres to over 120 metres is not 
only a violation of the orders of the Supreme 
Court of India but a major crime on humanity.

The NCPRI expresses its solidarity with the 
Narmada Bachao Andolan and demands that 
independent credible observers be immediately 
despatched to the Narmada Valley to observe first 
hand and report back the true status of 
rehabilitation. Till this has been established 
and all the displaced people satisfactorily 
rehabilitated, no further displacement should be 
permitted.

Shekhar Singh
Convenor



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Buzz on the perils of fundamentalist politics, on
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