New Delhi: The day since cracks started appearing in the houses of the residents of Joshimath in Uttarakhand, there have been extensive write-ups in the national and regional dailies and on web portals. Almost all of them invariably have highlighted the imminent need for intervention and the faulty outlook towards the Himalayas, which are considered to be a super tourist destination and wealth extraction zone.

Indeed, the Himalayas are one of the finest ranges of mountains with impressive flora and fauna, mineral wealth, tremendous hydropower potential and limestone for cement manufacturing. But, often we forget a hard reality, and that is that these are the youngest range of mountains in the world and are extremely fragile.

‘Planned’ and Not ‘Unplanned Development’ Responsible

Some of the write-ups with platitudinal references have been pointing out the unplanned development in the hilly regions and saying that because of houses being constructed on the debris, they are facing cracks as the mountains are subsiding. This is just one part of the story. But why are mountains subsiding?

The push from the centre and the state governments in the mountains to speed up development, particularly in the post-90s period and primarily whence Uttarakhand got its statehood is one of the major reasons for massive activity in the mountains. Himachal has been facing a similar scenario.

The development models of these two states- particularly the widening of the roads, the char dham yatra (Hindu pilgrimage) and harnessing the hydropower potential in both states, have been steered by the World Bank (WB). The WB which was reluctant in funding big hydropower projects changed its policy in 2005.

Quote from a source highlighting the plight of mountains because of massive interventions, states, “abstention from any support of major dams; from 2005 onwards, the Bank(World Bank) has substantially increased its funding to the big hydro project once again, including Nathpa Jhakri but without any critical evaluation. The project was completed at a cost of Rs 8,187 crore. “ Nathpa Jhakri project is on the Satluj basin. It has another interesting story that will follow in the later part of this write-up.

The World Bank website goes on the state that “The World Bank is also assisting the state governments of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand adopt a river-basin approach in the planning and development of cascaded hydropower systems. The two mountain states that have made hydropower generation a significant development priority had asked for Bank assistance in initiating a River Basin Development Optimisation Study that uses the Satluj and Alaknanda rivers as case studies which have been completed and discussions are ongoing on how to take this work forward.”

Hence, it is not unplanned but ‘planned development’ that has led to such holocausts in the mountains and this has been done by multilateral agencies like the Bank and the state and central governments who have brushed aside the concerns of the people. Take for example- in Himachal Pradesh, a No Objection Certificate (NOC) was essential for constructing a hydropower dam in the panchayat precinct but this was removed by a legislative order led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the state assembly.

The current model of planned development has benefited the multilateral agencies, and the hydropower corporations but not the people who have been forced to fall to ruins.

The Joshimath Story

Need not be explained that the state government of Uttarakhand in its push to attain more revenue for running the state, started doling out hydropower projects to big power corporations. Not to discount the fact that since the Mishra committee report came out in 1976, the town was reported to be on sediments and not on pucca (concrete) rocks. The vulnerability was high. But what precipitated the crisis is the construction of the World Bank-supported hydropower project, Tapovan-Vishnugad. The National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) Limited is constructing this project with a capacity of nearly 520 Megawatt (MW). It is a large project.

Now, what happens when a hydropower project is constructed? This project has a huge catchment area of more than 3,000 square kilometres. The so-called new technology, “run of the river dam”-where large dams are not required, was pushed forward in the last few decades as a solution for saving the submergence of large parts of land under big dams. But this technology, which is also used in the above project has its own perils. And in fact, speaks volumes of perilous development in the mountains.

Under this technology, a potential difference is created by blocking water on the main river and then diverting that river through a Head Race Tunnel (HRT)into the surge shaft and finally pouring it onto the turbines. In the Vishnugad project, the HRT is 12.1 kilometres long with a dimension of 5.6m diameters. Then there are Adit tunnels to enter the HRT.

Now, what happens in the construction of these tunnels? The technology used in most of these tunnel burrowing is through very heavy blasting, instead of a tunnel boring machine which is considered to be better. Imagine the volume of muck that comes out of such digging of a tunnel. Where is it dumped? All this leads to further vulnerability. During the course of HRT because of massive blasting, the rock layers get disturbed, and because of this, the people living in the mountains lose their natural ecosystem. They lose their water springs, and if the strata are loose, they even lose their houses. This is exactly what happened in Joshimath. Soon, this town with a population of over 20,000 will lose its existence.

There is another interesting part of the construction of Vishnugad. The earlier consortium of an Austrian company, Alpine Mayreder Bau GmbH with Larsen & Toubro (L&T) was terminated in 2014 owing to geological reasons. This contract was then given to another company for constructing the project and this company is known for its notoriety in using more than the required gelatin for blasting. The same company was also in a consortium in the construction of NJPC at
one of the three sites.

And now we know the reality. But this is not just an isolated example. This is the story across the mountain regions.

The Satluj Story

Satluj river as it enters from China into India has been targeted for harnessing its entire potential. The proposed and constructed projects as it enters India are Khab Shaso, Jangi-Thopan, Thopan Powari, Shongthong-Karcham, Karcham Wangtoo, Nathpa Jhakri, Rampur, Luhri, Kol Dam and finally the Bhakra hydropower project. All of these projects are on the Satluj River and a dozen more are on its tributaries.

Similar conditions of working as explained above in the Joshimath region prevail in these projects as well. In Himachal Pradesh, additional leverage was given to the hydropower companies, particularly the private ones. This came in the form of a quality check which was there earlier. The state electricity board is used to monitor the overall quality of the construction of the hydropower projects. The use of material- the use of gelatin in blasting, etc., however, was ended during the BJP rule on the strong push from the Jay Pee industries that constructed the Karcham -Wangtoo hydropower project.

Like Joshimath, people often forget that the Nathpa village, where the dam was constructed has lost its existence. The village was small, perhaps, and because of that, there was not much anger. The entire village started sliding because of the construction activity of the dam and then had to be reallocated to another place. In Himachal, there is a continuous threat of landslides even when it is not raining. The sole reason is the construction activity done whilst constructing the project. So, it is not just during the project construction but even afterwards that the threat looms large.

Construction of Chardham roads and widening of roads

This is another important feature leading to massive cutting of the hills and at places even tunnelling that is leading to huge loss to the mountain ecology. There are around 69 national highways announced in the state. The char dham yatra also is a pointer in this direction. Most of the heavy construction road projects in the state of Himachal Pradesh are supported by the Bank and other multilateral agencies. What the mountain states require is the mobility of the people and not the mobility of the cars.

In none of the cases mentioned above, a geologist is part of the team while constructing these roads. This further enhances the vulnerability of the mountains.

The repeated reference made to the Bank does not mean that some vilification campaign is put up against this agency it is to point out that the planned development models are amply supported by the governments and the multilateral agencies without the participation of the people.

No Means No

This is another movement like the Chipko movement in Uttarakhand. This ‘no means no’ movement is restricted to the tribal district of Kinnaur in Himachal where the natives have taken a strong position against the further construction of hydropower projects and are not allowing any new entry into the hydropower construction.

‘Kiang’, in local dialect means ‘fire’ and is one of the connotations given by the tribals where cross sections of the people from the youth, retired bureaucrats, farmers, and women have woven a network and are not allowing any more hydropower projects in the region.

The current model of development- ‘planned development’, without the participation of the people, has led to massive erosion of nature, trust, wealth, and assets are cheating the common people. But there are movements that beacon a ray of hope that alienation will not lead to the desired results, they must fight back and reclaim their right of planning themselves.

Hence, the flawed understanding “it is unplanned construction” that is leading to such holocausts in the mountains must be corrected with “the planning authorities have failed,” the people have to step in to reclaim their right over planning and conserving nature which they have done for centuries together. ‘Nature and us’ living in dialectical unity and nature, not for profit and capital accumulation must be the war cry.

(The writer is the former deputy mayor of Shimla, Himachal Pradesh.Views are personal.)

Courtesy: newsclick.in

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In tough times, when the secular fabric of the society in a country like India is being torn apart, is there a sign of hope? Mulk – a recently released Hindi film produced and directed by Anubhav Sinha is one of the signs of hope! There have been many reviews of the film. But, I would like to begin forthright by producing the comments by the director. Sinha, when asked as to why he trudged such an attempt, which was full of challenges and perils, eloquently said that the present-day media houses, especially the television channels, have got converted into sheer propagandists serving the agenda of gulfing the gap in between the communities. They are further reinforcing the present ruling dispensation’s ideology by polarising them the communities. Hence, he said Mulk is a deliberate attempt and not tacit at all, to ensure that the basic spirit of the Indian society i.e. brotherhood is reinforced. 

The movie Mulk is a story of a small town in UP, and revolves around the central character, Murad Ali (Rishi Kapoor), who is a reputed advocate, a Muslim of course, who has a well-settled family. The drama of the film is shot in a courtroom, which follows Murad Ali’s nephew Shahid’s (Pratik Babbar) killing by the police, as he was instrumental in a bomb blast. The story is woven around Murad Ali’s family – including his younger brother Bilal and (Manoj Pahwa) father of Shahid – being indicted by the police for abetting terrorism. Bilal is arrested, and dies in the jail, as he was sick and could not bear it. The case does not end there, and even Murad Ali is made as an accused, however, he is not arrested. Murad Ali’s case is pleaded by his daughter-in-law Kiran (Taapssee Pannu), who is a Hindu. 
The courtroom virtually becomes a playground for the modern-day discourse and drama being witnessed in real life in India nowadays. The prosecution led by Santosh Anand (Ashutosh Rana), who is not just castigating but extremely sarcastic in terming Murad Ali’s family terrorists, plays a role like an ideologue of the present ruling coterie. Dialogues like ‘All Muslims are not terrorists, but all terrorists are Muslims’ are used extensively. The sheer subjectivity of the individuals comes to play. These include comments from the prosecution like why Muslims are poor, more illiterate, produce more children etc. Another subjectivity to play in the film, which is new in the cinema world, is that of Danish Javed (Rajat Kapoor), who is the police officer, who could have arrested Shahid, but instead shot him dead. He being a Muslim has another form of prejudice, where even he is conditioned by majority communalism to believe that Muslims are terrorists, and that he has to take a direct action, and kill such bad Muslims. 

The central theme of the drama revolves around how Murad Ali is to prove himself to be somebody who loves his country – India. The narrative of the film has nicely been built on ‘us’ and ‘they’. ‘Us’ in the discourse is the majoritarian Hindu community and ‘they’ is the Muslim minority. It is against this background that Murad Ali performs a scintillating performance where he questions their authority to ask for a proof of his patriotism. This nation is as dear to him as to anybody else, he says. It was his choice that he stayed back in India. Another important role is of the judiciary. The judge, while acquitting Murad Ali, gives a long speech on the subjectivity of the whole drama. Important to note is his reference to the fringe elements who are bent upon making such a polarisation. He also shows the ‘constitution’ to be used as a weapon to safeguard the rights of the individual and that it (the constitution) does not differentiate on the basis of religion, caste etc. He further remarks, “In case they still do not listen, then we are there to take care of them”. For how long? Anybody’s guess!

Another powerful portrayal is about the ‘common Muslim family’ being the general one in the line of patriotism, unlike the comments made about a few Muslims like Abdul Hamid, Abdul Kalam and Ustad Bismillah Khan as exceptions. The narrative of the film is unambiguously clear that majority of the Muslims are like them; it is the terrorists who form the exception.

To speak about the movie world in India, a story has been carried while reviewing Mulk as “Finally Bollywood has courage to look at Muslims as regular Indians and not as terrorists.” Shekhar Gupta, one of the senior journalists in the country, while writing a review of the film has described three different phases of Indian cinema. According to him, the first era is the post-independence era. There was a parallel genre of the “Muslim social”, with subtle romance, shayari, and sort of middling feudal splendours, from Mere Mehboob to Pakeezah. The second happens to be the “angry young man” 1970s, the Muslim was the big-hearted, honourable man who usually sacrificed his life for his Hindu buddy. Remember Pran’s Sher Khan singing “Yaari hai imaan mera, yaar meri zindagi…” to humour Amitabh Bachchan in Prakash Mehra’s 1973 classic Zanjeer. Until the late 1980s, the Muslim, if featured, was almost always a good guy. The third one happens to be the Sunny Deolisation of the cinema where communalism became fashionable. Gadar- Ek Prem Katha was the worst such connotation according to him. 

One may agree with this corollary or not, but it is true that the portrayal of Muslims has been metamorphosed as that of bad characters beginning from the late 1980s. This is also true to the rise of communalism in India. It is the late 80s of the last century that the hatred spread across the country. The first culmination of the spree unleashed by communalism was the riots after the demolition of the Babri Masjid. And then there has been no looking back. 

A 2011 study of 50 films with Muslim characters by Muhammad Ashraf Khan and Syeda Zuria Bokhari showed 65.2 percent painted Muslims in bad colours, about 30 percent were neutral, and only 4.4 percent positive.

Another interesting feature noticed outside the film in the cinema hall – though not very crowded – was that the viewers did not seem to cheer or whistle at the Muslim ridicule during arguments in the movie.

The point is that this trend of portraying the whole ideology of ‘us’ and ‘them’, which the present dispensation under the RSS umbrella follows at least got a shrug, needs to be consolidated. Such voices of the common people can only reinforce the idea of brotherhood and unity in diversity. 

But let me share another incident which shows that the challenge is still quite large. Whilst writing this piece, I shared a post on the Facebook, condemning the attack on Umar Khalid and how important it is to resist them (the attackers). One of the comments was “Deshdrohi kaise bach gaya” (how is it that the traitor got saved). Of course, I removed the contact and the comment.

Watch the movie, and strengthen your commitment to a secular India. 

First published in Newsclick.

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