The decision of the People’s Republic of China to build a dam on the Brahmaputra will naturally cause concern. China’s dismissal of Indian concerns will predictably be viewed as another sign of Chinese arrogance in bilateral and multilateral affairs. But, even as India justifiably questions China’s plans, uncomfortable questions present themselves. What is India doing for its water security? Where is the urgency on this side of the border? Why are there so many internal hurdles?

News of the Tsangpo dam shows that in China the need for water resources to be properly harnessed is understood; the dam-building process is underway in quick time. The contrast to India, where large water resources projects are continually held up by irresponsible politics, is stark. (The Sardar Sarovar Dam is but the most glaring example.) Development in India — even the very minimum of preparedness for coming challenges — is less a subject for farsighted decision-making and democratic compromise between different groups, and more a hostage to the last man standing. Placating every individual who disagrees, handing out vetoes to every interest group simply breeds a home-grown fifth column against development and growth. Thus a weary state decides on the basis of what is not vetoed. Remember again the Narmada project. And how Saifuddin Soz, then water resources minister, stalled the completion of work on the dam — in particular, on the gates and to take it to its proper crest height — for overtly political reasons, and to placate the same set of do-nothing activists. The dam’s height was raised eventually, but the radial gates are still held up.

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