Time to move on

It is perhaps inevitable 8212; and wholesome 8212; that a rambunctious democracy like India8217;s should see passionate debates over big issues. Within the strong currents of disagreement, however, we welcome the Supreme Court8217;s judgement on the Sardar Sarovar Dam. It is a timely reminder that development need not be a zero-sum game, that the nation need not choose between the greater common good and the entitlements of the displaced. After the needless confusion created over the weekend by the Union water resources minister, the air has also been cleared, gently, by the Prime Minister. He has been firm that the rights of each stakeholder in the Narmada project can be, and must be, protected. Construction work on the dam and rehabilitation are not mutually exclusive tasks and can proceed apace. A significant milestone has been crossed. This is the moment to move forward, carrying the gains of past weeks.

It is moment for the Narmada Bachao Andolan too to pause and assess those gains. A principle has been reinforced in these weeks: that there can be no differing with the priority given to rehabilitation. It is, of course, a principle that the NBA has stood by, and done its sincerest best to remind the state of. We strongly believe that the NBA should be invited to be formally and substantively a part of the PM-led rehabilitation authority the Centre has proposed. Given its activists8217; ground-level expertise, we believe that as part of the official rehabilitation effort, it would bring credibility to the process and serve as an in-built monitoring mechanism. The NBA is at a rare crossroads: the choice lies between what is perceived by a great many people as opposition for opposition8217;s sake and a constructive role in service of oustees.

This is also a time to transcend the acrimony of past days. In India, the world8217;s largest democracy, the right to oppose and to protest is available to each person. To the NBA, to public figures like Aamir Khan who represent the freedom of the individual to ask difficult questions of their elected representatives, and to those very elected representatives. Each one of them is a stakeholder in India8217;s future. And it would be extremely deleterious for our system if a false dichotomy was sought to be made between the activist following his conscience and the chief minister articulating the interests of his state.