The spectacular success of Medha Patkar’s Narmada Bachao Andolan in manipulating the media for over two decades is unparalleled in the history of social activism. I am no expert on the economic viability of big or small dams. Therefore, I have no verdict to pass on the Sardar Sarovar dam project. All I can say is that the mountains of propaganda material generated by the NBA, including the melodramatic tracts written by Arundhati Roy, convince me that their expertise cannot be trusted either.Though NBA never tires of pointing to the real and imagined failures of Resettlement & Rehabilitation as the main reason for their opposition to the dam, it has worked tirelessly to obstruct R&R. Medha started her career in 1984 with an Ahmedabad-based organisation called SETU which assigned her the job of assisting Vasudha Dhargamwar of MARG to survey the affected villages to assess the information level of people regarding the impact of the Narmada project and their rights as oustees. This was meant to ensure that people got a fair and just rehabilitation package. But by 1987, Medha had developed extensive contacts of her own and unilaterally parted company with a whole coalition of NGOs sincerely working for R&R to proclaim: “Bandh nahin banega, koi nahin hatega.” Her stand became even more uncompromising when, under pressure from the World Bank, Gujarat agreed to give a generous R&R package. Far from welcoming it and joining hands with those who began working to ensure that the government’s promise of R&R was translated into concrete action, she declared that the NBA would not accept the package because NBA is in principle opposed to obstructing the “natural” flow of rivers. Even the nomenclature of the movement — “Narmada Bachao Andolan” —reveals that the NBA is more obsessed with “saving” the river from human beings than protecting the interests of poor farmers.Thereafter began a sustained defamation campaign by the NBA against all those who acted as watchdogs to ensure proper rehabilitation. They were dubbed as anti-poor, anti-tribal, pro-kulaks and hostages to corporate interests. NBA activists were instructed to prevent the entry of not just government officials but also independent NGOs into villages for collecting honest, updated data regarding families requiring resettlement. They obstructed information about the R&R package to prevent people from making an informed choice. They even used emotional blackmail by making tribals take a sacred oath with water of the holy Narmada in hand that they would choose death to relocation.However, it did not take long for many of their followers to realise that NBA was misleading them. Most tribal villages began quietly voting with their feet and accepted the unprecedented R&R package of 5 acres per adult son, Rs 45,000 to each for building a new house, free transportation of their household goods, including the timbered frame of the house, plus truckloads of additional wood from their villages. The R&R process in Maharashtra and Gujarat is almost complete. Most of the new villages for oustees have been provided with schools and primary health facilities and better connectivity with urban centres than ever before.This could happen because several Gandhians and NGOs in Gujarat did a fairly good job of playing watchdogs, insisting that the government give the land of their choice to oustees even if it meant purchasing it from private owners.Even in this NBA activists put all manners of hurdles. This is how Ambrish Patel of Arch-Vahini describes one among many episodes of NBA’s techniques. When a large majority of tribals from Manibeli wanted to move to the new land sites offered to them in Gujarat, the minority still aligned to NBA declared they would not let those who wanted to move take their dismantled houses with them. (Tribal homes are built with a lot of timber.) Government functionaries sent to assist in carrying their belongings and construction material were stoned and prevented from entering the village. Finally, the intervention of Arch-Vahini of Gujarat was sought since it had sustained pressure on Gujarat to implement its promises of R&R. When Arch-Vahini personnel were also attacked, the entire operation had to be carried out under police protection. However, the NBA successfully manipulated the media coverage to project an image that Manibeli was razed to the ground by police action and goons acting on behalf of the Gujarat government to forcibly oust poor tribals from their village.Another NBA ploy was to demand that since tribals are forest dwellers, they should be given forest land for resettlement. For years the ministry of environment resisted the idea because new environment laws are against allowing new settlements in forest areas. However, when under World Bank pressure, Maharashtra was persuaded to make forest land available for oustees, the NBA created a big furore on the plea that this meant destroying the already depleted forest cover in Maharashtra.Maneka Gandhi, a strong supporter of the NBA, gave the following account from a whole repertoire of stories about Medha’s obstructionist strategies with regard to R&R. In 2001, when Maneka was appointed minster for social welfare, she approached Medha and asked for the list of the project affected families in Madhya Pradesh so that she could help with a comprehensive plan of action for rehabilitation. When she found that the NBA had never prepared a list of those requiring rehabilitation, she offered to get that job done by sending the most honest among her officers. She requested Medha not to let this be known publicly, so that the survey could be kept a quiet affair since her own party bosses were not keen on such an exercise. As soon as the team reached Bhopal, Medha gave a press conference denouncing the survey team and dissociating NBA from it. As soon as BJP leaders got to know of it, Prime Minister Vajpayee ordered Maneka to recall the survey team. As a junior minister in the Cabinet, she had no choice but to comply. That was yet another opportunity sabotaged for preparing an accurate list of people requiring rehabilitation.Today, despite NBA, Gujarat and Maharashtra have almost finished the R&R process. Madhya Pradesh is the only state, which has not done the job. However, most of the 35,000 families whose cause NBA is currently espousing with a view to stopping work on the dam are not tribals, though they are paraded as adivasis. Tribal lands were submerged long ago and they have mostly been settled despite NBA obstructionist efforts. The present day “oustees” are mostly Patel and other Patidar castes. There are serious differences between the government’s estimates of families requiring total relocation and that of the NBA. How do we know what is the accurate ground reality when all along NBA activists have steadfastly opposed the entry of government officials and even independent NGOs to carry out an accurate updated assessment?By building a sustained campaign on the issue of rehabilitation, at the national and international level, the NBA has played an important role in forcing the government to offer a decent R&R package. However, by mixing lies, half truths and overstatements and a consistent obstructionist attitude towards R&R while cynically using the issue to stall dam construction and defaming those who took up the task seriously, NBA has caused enormous damage and compromised its own credibility.NBA has made a religion out of opposing all development projects without examining the merits of each case. It defines itself mainly through negative agendas — anti-dam, anti-liberalisation, anti-globalisation, anti-WTO, anti this, anti that. The alternative development paradigm Medha claims to represent has not yet offered any practical and positive agendas of action.That is why even those of us who have serious misgivings about the Sarkari Paradigm of Development feel equally suspicious of NBA’s worldview. If ever an honest account of this “movement” gets to be written, we will find it has no less to answer than the Government of India.
