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March04, 2006 - #India Thinkers Net # Bush..nuke deal etc >> |
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[1] From: Regi P George <george_regi@yahoo.com> Date: Wed Mar 1, 2006 Subject: Has the Construction Advisory Committee Cleared Sardar Sarovar Dam Height Raise to 121 metres?? Narmada Bachao Andolan 62 Mahatma Gandhi Marg, Badwani, Madhya Pradesh. Ph: (07290) 222464 c/o B-13 Shivam Flats, Ellora Park, Baroda, Gujarat. Ph: (0265) 2282232 Maitri Niwas, Tembewadi, Dhadgaon, district Nandurbar, Maharashtra. Ph: (02595) 220620 March 1, 2006 Has the Construction Advisory Committee Cleared Sardar Sarovar Dam Height Raise to 121 metres?? It appears that the Sardar Sarovar Construction Advisory Committee (SSCAC) has cleared the construction aspect of the Sardar Sarovar dam upto the height of 121.92 metres, from the present height of 110.64 metres. If this is true, it is indeed shocking as this just points to the fact that the governments are indeed determined to raise the dam height, even if it means violation of the Supreme Court's orders and destitution and homelessness of thousands and thousands of families in the submergence area. The Resettlement & Rehabilitation (R&R) Sub-Group of the Narmada Control Authority (NCA) is still to give clearance for the height raise. Even though the three states of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat are all claiming that rehabilitation has been completed, this is far from the truth. The Action Taken Reports (ATRs) apparently have been submitted to the Centre by the three states in order to ask for clearance. However, these ATR's have not been made public. They have not been verified by the NCA or by the Gram Sabhas (village bodies). Yet, they are being used to try and push the project ahead. In M.P., the government has resorted to doling out cash compensation instead of land, which is a violation of the Narmada Tribunal Award and Supreme Court's orders. In addition, the Centre has clearly taken a position that giving cash instead of land will not be considered as rehabilitation. In the meeting of the R&R Sub-Group of the NCA held on 12th September, 2005 in New Delhi, the Centre took a clear position against the cash compensation. Another Application in this regard has again been filed in the Supreme Court of India by the affected families of the valley. However, before this case can come up for hearing, the governments seem to be rushing the process to get clearance before the truth is revealed before the Court. The Centre also took a clear stand that the Maharashtra government must allot 2 hectares of agricultural land to major sons, as per the Court's order, as opposed to the 1 hectare land that they have been giving until now. However, the Maharashtra officials have issued a clear statement that they WILL NOT give 2 hectares to major sons. It seems that they are willing to openly flout the Court's orders. The Prime Minister had directed on November 22, 2004 that the Minister of Water Resources must visit the Narmada Valley and check on the claims of rehabilitation before the height is raised any further. This visit, while must awaited by us, has still not taken place. The state leaders have cheated and bluffed the Water Resources Minister by giving him incorrect briefing about the completion of rehabilitation works in the valley. Hence, we really urge the Minister, Shri Soz, to visit the region and see the situation for himself. In addition, it is startling to note that the R&R Sub-Group, which is charged with the monitoring of rehabilitation measures, has not visited the submergence area since November 2000! Hence, clearances have been given to raise the dam height merely by paperwork, most of it FALSE, done sitting in Bhopal, Mumbai, Gandhinagar and Delhi, without any checking being done on the ground. It is no wonder then that grave injustice is being done to the people of the valley. This is all due to the morally bankrupt politics of Narendra Modi (CM of Gujarat) and Shivrajsingh Chauhan (CM of MP) who have never visited the valley and do not understand the massive scale of displacement and human tragedy they are causing. Modi, of course, is used to genocide even in his own state! Why then will he care about displacement of tribals and other poor families? But it is upto the Centre to take a strong stand in keeping with their promise not to allow displacement without rehabilitation in their election manifesto, the Common Minimum Program (CMP). It has taken the last 25 years to resettle 11,000 families. How then will 35,000 families just in Madhya Pradesh be resettled within even the next 5 to 10 years, especially when M.P. has no cultivable land to offer to people nor the political will to follow through on its promises? The Gujarat Congress too must take a position on this. They must not allow rampant trampling of peoples' rights, especially at a time when the cost of the project to Gujarat is very very high and the benefits are not coming through. The canal network is still not ready; as a result the water at 110 metres is also not being used fully. The canals have been breaking, as happened in monsoon of 2004 and 2005, causing tremendous loss of crops and homes in areas that were inundated. The reports of organisations in Gujarat who are monitoring the Narmada Drinking Water Pipeline Project clearly show that the drinking water is going to only a fraction of the villages that was claimed. In addition, M.P. and Maharashtra have not received any significant amount of power from the project either. At this stage, Rupees 20,000 crores are still remaining to be spent on the Project. Over 40,000 families are still to be resettled. The task is a Herculean one, and will only be completed by doing grave injustice to the people affected. Hence, this is the time to review this project before it goes any further. Let the waters at 110 metres be used properly and all affected people rehabilitated justly. Let the balance money be used for small decentralized water projects in Gujarat, which would bring far more benefit to the people of Gujarat. We are afraid the Centre will regret if it gives in to Gujarat right now and grants any further clearance without thoroughly investigating the ground situation. Ashish Mandloi Yogini Khanolkar Kamal Awasya Noorji Padvi Jamalbhai Dipti Bhatnagar Umesh Patidar Medha Patkar ------------------------ [2] From: Hussain Hyder Ali Khowaja <hhalik@yahoo.com> Date: Wed Mar 1, 2006 Subject: Thousands of Indians Protest Bush Visit http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060301/ap_on_re_as/india_us_protests Thousands of Indians Protest Bush Visit -------------------- [3] From: rkurian@bgl.vsnl.net.in Date: Wed Mar 1, 2006 Subject: An "Assertive" India .... ..from the NYT http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/28/international/asia/28india.html?pagewanted -------------------------------------------------------------------- February 28, 2006 An Assertive India Girds for Negotiations With Bush By SOMINI SENGUPTA NEW DELHI, Feb. 27 - When President Bush lands in India early Wednesday, he will encounter an ever ambivalent American ally with one important difference from the past: this India has new power to assert its views, some of which align with Mr. Bush's agenda and some of which do not. Much has changed, in fact, since the last visit here by an American president, in 2000, when President Clinton's address to the Indian Parliament was received so enthusiastically that lawmakers climbed over benches to shake his hand. Facing prospects of protests, President Bush is not expected to address Parliament at all. But that is not to say that India has morphed into an anti-American redoubt. There is still in most quarters enthusiasm for relations. But in the past six years, India has also become a more confident partner - in trade and in America's campaigns against terrorism and nuclear proliferation - which touch India both obliquely and directly as it looks abroad in pursuit of its own interests like never before. Meanwhile, India's endemic prickliness shows no signs of remission. Pratap Bhanu Mehta, president of the nonpartisan Center for Policy Research in New Delhi, sees in his country what he calls "a great admiration for U.S. power," a capacity that many Indians find worthy of emulation. "This is a power that acts independently, acts freely, is not constrained," he said. "It's not so much an anti-American view than wanting to replicate that." That fine balance is most visible in talks over whether to reward India with access to American nuclear technology, an issue about which both sides would like to announce a deal this week. They are not there yet, as the talks rub up against the one thing that many Indians, particularly in the political elite, hold dear: the idea of India's independence. Little else may actually unite opinion here. Indeed, the many shades of political opinion found in this feisty country of one billion defy any easy rendering - of an India as either for or against the United States. India has fundamentalists of the Hindu and Muslim persuasion, Maoist guerrillas, free marketers, newly minted millionaires and Marxist lawmakers with posters of Che Guevara on their office walls. The Pew Global Attitudes Project found Indians last year to be among the most cheerful in their appraisal of both the United States and President Bush. In a survey published this week in the Indian newsweekly Outlook, two-thirds of Indians "strongly" or "somewhat" regarded Mr. Bush as "a friend of India," even as 72 percent called the United States "a bully." In the same survey, conducted by A. C. Nielsen, nearly two-thirds of respondents said India should go its own way and defy American objections on a natural gas pipeline to Iran. Perhaps most striking, fewer than half the Indians surveyed said they would want to "settle down in the U.S." The conflicting currents come as relations between the countries have undergone a revolution, and are more entwined than ever before, making commonplace today what would have been unthinkable even a few years ago. Indians are buying American arms. The two military powers are conducting joint counterinsurgency exercises. Indians are among the fastest growing immigrant groups in the United States, and charity money from America - something that would be held in suspicion in the recent past - is helping to train Indian nurses to care for people with AIDS. But it is the nuclear deal that is potentially most fraught for both sides. In contradiction to its stand against nuclear proliferation with countries like Iran, the White House has promised India access to civilian nuclear technology, provided that New Delhi comes up with a plan to separate its civilian and military programs. As beneficial as such a deal would be to this vast, energy-starved nation, it is this demand that has exposed a deep vein of postcolonial pride in the Indian political culture. Why, even pro-American voices are asking, should Washington be allowed to exert leverage over the contours of the nuclear program in India, long a defiant opponent of the global nonproliferation treaty? "No matter what your position is on whether you think India should have a big nuclear program or a small nuclear program, a lot of people are saying, 'Hang on, weren't we told this choice is ours?' " said Mr. Mehta, the political analyst. "It's an attachment to India's own sovereignty, also to what we think India's own capability is." Even the most avid proponents of the new partnership are circling the sovereignty wagons. A senior Indian government official, who did not want to be quoted for fear of jeopardizing the continuing talks, said the future course of relations might hinge on the tendency of the Bush White House to cast nations as either adversary or ally. India, the official made clear, can be neither. "This is a very sovereignty-conscious country," the official said. The nuclear talks are moving neither as swiftly nor as smoothly as either Washington or New Delhi had hoped. India insists that its own strategic interests must be placed before the imperatives of the White House. Nor have the quid pro quo suggestions made by the American ambassador in India, David C. Mulford, gone down particularly well: in exchange for nuclear cooperation, Mr. Mulford suggested in an interview with an Indian news agency earlier this month, India would have to take a stance against Iran's nuclear ambitions, cooperation that Washington clearly cherishes. Such a diplomatic tempest did his remarks cause that the embassy later took pains to say Mr. Mulford's comments had been misinterpreted. As it happened, India voted against Iran at the early February meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency. Later, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was prompted to reassure Parliament that India's vote was based only on its national interest. On Monday, the prime minister again went to Parliament to reassure lawmakers that India's national security would not be compromised, notwithstanding American demands. "We remain firm in that the decision of what facilities may be identified as civilian will be made by India alone, and not by anyone else," he said. More to the point, he maintained that India engaged in negotiations only as "an equal partner." A glimpse of how varied India regards its new suitor is clearly on display in Hyderabad, in the heart of the country, which Mr. Bush will visit on Friday. In the shadow of a four-pillared monument called the Charminar, grape sellers, tailors and college students quietly curse America's treatment of the Muslim world. The Charminar, like Hyderabad itself, was built by the Iranians who conquered this part of the country 500 years ago. It stands as a testament to what the Indian government repeatedly describes as its "civilizational" ties to Iran as well as to the political significance of Muslim public opinion in this country. India's Muslim population is second in size only to Indonesia's. "They talk about democracy, but democracy is on their lips," a tailor named Abdul Karim said. "In their heart, it's bullying." Kodandaram Reddy, 50, a professor of political science at Osmania University, discerned a certain generational gap, with young Indians less troubled by the prospect of American domination than those of his generation. "They think one need not be too scared about white people, we can handle them," Mr. Reddy offered. "It's na??ve to think it's always possible to talk it over. It's not possible. Especially not with the Americans." In fact, in the courtyard of the Cyber Towers building can be found those young men and women who have cashed in, like no other generation of Indians, on the mighty possibilities of American outsourcing. They seemed the most confident that India was capable of splitting the difference, reaping the benefits of its new ties to America while keeping its more powerful ally at a safe distance. Swathi Reddy, 25, said she was swiftly hired by an American company as soon as she graduated from engineering college. Had she graduated even a few years earlier, she would have had to wait for work. "It's a very good thing," she said of the new United States-India partnership. "We are benefiting the most." Arun Chinnasamy, 28, said that he had no plans to protest the Bush visit but added that he felt no love for Bush administration's policies, like the pressure on India to vote against Iran's nuclear ambitions. "You can't have someone peering into your own house," is how he put it. But his colleague, Pranesh Upasi, 26, was not terribly worried. "India," he said, "can stand up for itself." The New York Times --------------------- [4] From: rkurian@bgl.vsnl.net.in Date: Wed Mar 1, 2006 Subject: Bush in India.. http://www.countercurrents.org/ind-jones010306.htm Bush In pursuit Of Key strategic Partnership With India By Keith Jones ----------------- [5] From: "Mike Ghouse" <MIKEGHOUSE@aol.com> Date: Wed Mar 1, 2006 Subject: CALIFORNIA STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION'S DECISION http://www.foundationforpluralism.com/FFP_Release_On_CSBE_Decision_02 2806.asp |
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| << March01, 2006 - [India Thinkers Net]Bush visit,nuke deal etc |
March04, 2006 - #India Thinkers Net # Bush..nuke deal etc >> |
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