Quiet relief for BJP as much-delayed canal brings Narmada water to Kutch

Even as Wednesday night saw boisterous celebrations by villagers upstream who spontaneously lined up along the banks of the KBC to watch the water streaming in, the ruling BJP and the state government organised no formal celebrations. Their silence was especially curious considering the party has celebrated every milestone of the ambitious Narmada dam project with much fanfare.

In fact, the initial euphoria soon gave way to allegations and questions over the quality of work as the KBC developed a breach at Bidada village near Mandvi town around 7 am Thursday.

On Wednesday, a few local BJP functionaries joined the crowds in villages near Mandvi town as they cheered the Narmada waters. Virendrasinh Jadeja, BJP MLA from Mandvi, and Valamji Humbal, vice-chairman of Amul dairy who pledges allegiance to the BJP, were among those who led the celebrations at Bidada village on Wednesday noon.

“Wednesday was a historic day and people celebrated in villages along the canal all the way from Anjar to Mandvi,” MLA Jadeja said.

“Bringing water to an area more than 600 km away from a dam requires tremendous will and resolve and the only person who could do it is Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” said Vinod Chavda, Member of Parliament from Kutch Lok Sabha seat and general secretary of the Gujarat state unit of the BJP.

The completion of the KBC comes less than two months after Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel formally scrapped the Centre’s Par-Tapi-Narmada rivers linking project in May this year in the face of protests by tribals and the Opposition. The project was meant to feed the Narmada river to enable the water to reach Kutch and Saurashtra, two of the relatively parched regions of Gujarat.

With the Arabian Sea on two sides and flanked by the Little Rann of Kutch and the Great Rann of the Kutch, the groundwater in Kutch is either salty or very deep. Surface water, a precious resource in this semi-arid district, is hence a politically sensitive issue.

Local leaders have long held the grouse that Kutch has been neglected in the implementation of the Narmada dam project. While work on the KBC started way back in 2009, land acquisition issues delayed the work whereas districts in Saurashtra — Surendranagar, Morbi, Botad and Bhavangar — have been getting irrigation water for several years now. Regions in north Gujarat, which are also part of the project, have been getting Narmada water for close to two decades now.

The Congress, which wrested the Rapar Assembly seat from BJP in 2017, had made the alleged slow implementation of the canal project a key poll issue. On his visits to Kutch, Prime Minister Narendra Modi would remind the crowd that the district has a “special place” in his heart, but with work on the KBC slow, the BJP campaign would be cautious to steer clear of the subject. But now, with the water flowing in the KBC, which covers four Assembly constituencies, the BJP will breathe easy and claim credit.

Assembly elections in the state are due towards the end of this year. Except for the Rapar Assembly constituency, the BJP holds the remaining five Assembly seats and the Lok Sabha seat in Kutch.

While many have been pointing to the BJP’s seeming lack of enthusiasm over Thursday’s event, the party says it’s simply saving the celebrations for Modi’s visit.

“Work on Smruti Van, a garden dedicated to victims of the 2001 earthquake, is likely to be completed in three weeks. The PM will visit Kutch to inaugurate this garden and to dedicate the KBC to the public. Therefore, no celebrations were held on Wednesday,” said MP Chavda.

However, the Congress took pot-shots at the BJP government over the breach in the canal, and the slow pace of work. “The fact that the canal developed a breach during the testing itself suggests corruption in its construction. People were enthusiastic that Narmada waters are finally reaching the far corners of Kutch but their enthusiasm was dampened by the breach,” said Congress’s Kutch district unit president Yajuvendrasinh Jadeja, adding, “BJP leaders will now thump their chests claiming that it was Modi who brought Narmada waters to Mandvi. But the BJP has been in power in Gujarat for almost three decades. Why did it take so long for successive BJP governments to complete this work?”