145;Medha represents the nation146;s conscience146;

Prashant Bhushan, Suhas Borker, Sumit Chakravartty respond on the Narmada controversy

The basic issue in the Narmada debate is rehabilitation. In this context, B.G. Verghese 8216;Quiet flows the Narmada8217;, IE, April 10 makes a preposterous statement. 8220;Work on the SSP dam has been suspended off and on for approximately six or more years at the instance of the NBA. This itself has complicated issues by weakening the oustee8217;s resolve to move, swelling numbers and preventing rehabilitation.8221; He thus tries to make a case that it is Medha Patkar and the NBA who have derailed the process of rehabilitation when the reality is that they have only forcefully raised the demand that oustees get their due 8212; something endorsed by the Supreme Court.

Verghese terms Patkar8217;s insistence on immediate stoppage of work on the dam 8220;perverse8221;. This is a highly objectionable observation questioning Medha8217;s bonafides. The fact is that in its judgment of March 15,8217;05, the apex court unequivocally stated: 8220;submergence would not be allowed to take place until complete settlement and rehabilitation of oustees is done8230;8221; Significantly, Verghese glosses over this order and ends up turning a blind eye to the trauma of the displaced. Therefore he cannot escape the charge that his is an elitist view, which has little relevance to the difficulties of the aam aadmi, the UPA government is committed to address. It is well accepted that the Land Acquisition Act has failed to compensate the marginalised for the land they lose.

The Narmada Award was wise enough to anticipate this problem and therefore stipulated land for land with the minimum of 2 ha, which was regarded as the minimum economic holding. The elite whom Verghese represents has always been saying that the NBA cannot ask for scrapping the project and that compulsory land acquisition is necessary for development projects. They, however, have also been saying that the displaced must be compensated well enough so that they are left better off than what they were. However the working of the Land Acquisition Act so far has ensured that the poor and marginal are deprived of all their real assets and left to fend for themselves in urban slums.

Verghese now wants to institutionalise the atrocious violation of human rights of the oustees as well by advocating they need not be given land. This exposes the lip service that Verghese wants to pay to the concept of equity and justice. The time has come for the classes Verghese represents to take a hard look at what they are doing in the name of 8216;development8217;.

Yes, Mr Verghese, the Mahatma8217;s struggle against Imperial Britain is over and the situation today is very different. Bharat of the poor is pitted against India Incorporated, which works in tandem with the dictates of the World Bank and IMF and the local elite purses its lips in its bid to gain entry into the exclusive club of the global elite. Whose India is this? Is it the exclusive property of the state and the elite which thirst to milk the country bone dry? Does it only belong to a political class, supported by its mandarin henchmen, that can send its police forces on a stealthily mounted midnight swoop to forcibly take away a fasting Patkar to hospital, using all the brute force at its command.

Public memory is short. Public service broadcasting in India is a sham today because of the opportunism displayed by Verghese and his ilk. Verghese did not resign from his six-year term as member of Prasar Bharati Board in 8217;97, owning moral responsibility for the mess. He can now sermonise not to 8220;abandon due process8221;. So we have different benchmarks for public morality. By her total identifiction with the poorest of the poor, Patkar today represents the conscience of the nation. The country8217;s elites, who have never had it so good, are unable to comprehend the Gandhian essence of her struggle, as Gandhi has become an alien in his own country.