The Old Man and the Dam

An emaciated Sunderial Bahuguna agreed on 27 June to end his protest fast after Uttar Pradesh Governor Motilal Vora arrived by helicopter from Lucknow with assurances that Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao had agreed to look into issues raised by activists fighting the Tehri dam.

While Rao's 'capitulation' to domestic public opinion and international pressure did signal a loss of face for the Tehri Hydro Development Corporation (THDC), it remained unclear exactly what the dam's opponents should be celebrating. Prime Minister Rao, by keeping his promises, deliberately vague and at second hand, seemed to have defused a situation without committing himself to anything concrete.

Bahuguna was persuaded to give up his 49-day hunger strike by the banks of the Bhagirathi, but news reports carried hints from the Prime Minister's Office and the Ministry of Power in New Delhi that Rao had intended that only issues left uncovered by earlier reappraisals of the scheme would be dealt with. This would rule out a review of the safety of the dam, whereas a seismic review has been the primary demand of Bahuguna and fellow-activists. There is no taped or written record of Vora's meeting with Bahuguna.

Bahuguna had been engaged in dharna at the dam site since mid-April. "This is our last battle. We will not let Tehri drown," he declared before his fast, sitting cross-legged under a makeshift tarpaulin shelter and surrounded by supporters. He maintained that the project must be examined not only for its strength to withstand the greatest of possible earthquakes, but also to see whether the benefits from Tehri would justify the, economic, environmental and social costs to be borne by the Garhwal hills. "We want the right which nature has given us to use the water of our rivers. Our main opposition to the project is that it will transfer our resources downhill."

More than a hundred anti-dam campaigners from the Uttar Pradesh hills and other states of India met in Tehri last year and declared the project "legalised robbery" which would only worsen the lot of the marginalised region. Medha Patkar, grand lady of the Narmada l3achao Andolan, visited the protesters camp by the Bhagirathi and advised them not to accept at any cost rehabilitation offered by the government.

Bahuguna has ended his fast, but at the end of the day it seemed likely that the wily Prime Minister might just have duped the wizened hill Gandhian. In early July, Bahuguna was in Delhi to try and meet Rao. At the moment of going to press, he still had not been given an appointment.