Suddenly at sea

The government was supposed to give the ASI8217;s affidavit a burial at sea and get on with defending the Sethusamudram project in court. So why did it ask the court for three more months? Also, why is the government discovering the importance of asking for more opinion at this stage. After all, the government has been arguing, and the Congress has been saying in political briefings, that the details of the project, including which of the six possible routes should be chosen, were cleared during the NDA government. The impression therefore is not only that of over-correction following the affidavit goof, it also seems the government is not opposed to a change in the project8217;s specifications. Maybe what government strategists have in mind is that if there is enough 8216;democratic8217; opinion, it can graciously agree to a revision and argue that it is responding to reasoned critique. We could have said this looks like the Sethusamudram project will be given the same political treatment as the nuclear deal was. Except that the UPA is firm in keeping the deal going in its present form. It is important to remember in this context that petitioners like Subaramanian Swamy aren8217;t asking for the project to be scrapped. They simply want the so-called Ram Sethu to be left out of the plans. If the government agrees to build the project but abandon the route it was defending for so long, there will be an ungodly meeting of minds.

There will also be some explaining to do. The National Environmental Engineering Institute NEERI had advocated the current route by saying it was the least environmentally damaging. Another route, alignment 4, that was chosen earlier as being the most economically viable was later set aside after extensive consultations. Techno-economic-environmental parameters like these cannot be revised on the basis on politically convenient 8216;democratic8217; opinion. This is, may we remind all the political actors, a serious infrastructure project.

Of course, the Congress is looking at a serious political project, early elections. The three months breather it asked for and received would be roughly the period during which this government8217;s fate may be decided. The desperation to deny the BJP an emotive talking point is clearly understood. What is not is why the government thought that withdrawing the affidavits won8217;t be enough. Why can8217;t the government make the distinction between the needless para in the ASI affidavit and the science that backs the project? Why8217;s the Congress so nervous?