I was not at all surprised by the turn of events. It is a pattern
that has been well established.
While we have to acknowledge the good that the SC has done,time
to time, we cannot ignore one very serious weakness about this
dependence on the SC to make up for the dysfunction of the democratic
institutions that has failed the people time and again. And this
scenario will continue to play out, until the entire system is
overhauled to make democracy REAL, with FUNCTIONING
institutions.
No doubt it is a tall order. But without it nothing will
change.
The notion that elections are the be-all and end-all of
democracy, with the profoundly debased idea that majority will is
sacrosanct, has gotten firmly entrenched, even among the
intelligentsia. Thus, as long as the rituals of yet another icon, of
'democracy' ( I call it 'demokrasy', with the intentional 'k' and 's'
to represent the fascist and tyranny-of-the-majority components) are
performed, why should anyone worry about all those segments of society
that never mattered anyway? And if they still bother, one can always
resort to semantics, to demonize and devalue the troublemakers with
convenient words and epithets.
And all those 'intellectual' chief executives or figureheads of
state will continue to sing praises of 'democracy', telling the world
how 'every issue can be resolved democratically' or some such
nonsense, while the Tom Friedmans of the world whose approval society
so dearly need, will dutifully oblige, bestowing the legitimacy it
pines for.
What a sham! How shameful!
cm
At 2:51 PM +0000 5/10/06, anindita chattopadhyay wrote:
What surprises me most is that in a country where the death of a politician takes the bulk of transmission time, there is hardly any effort to reveal the actual status of the rehabilitation. A recent report on NDTV shown during Medha Patkar's hunger strike clearly pointed out the actual status. While govt officials claimed that all rehabilitation arrangements have been completed in the nearby villages, the TV reporter showed that houses were built to rehabilitate only 68 families when some 800 families were there. I wonder whether the SC judges have seen this report.
Let the height of the dam be increased because that would help farmers in Gujarat, but not before proper rehabilitation of the displaced people.
I want to ask a question to these politicians and judges - How would they feel if they are asked to leave their home of years. We are largest democracy but people's voice are seldom heard.
From: "EAS Sarma" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
CC: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [WaterWatch] Re: unbelievable, shocking Court Order
Date: Mon, 8 May 2006 20:45:17 +0530
Dear Medhaji,
I am shocked at the interim order of the Supreme Court!First, this order is highly inconsistent with its earlier pronouncements on Sardar Sarovar.
More than anything else, the latest order has the unfortunate effect of drowning the voiceless families that are going to be submerged as a result of the passive attitude adopted by the Court.
I doubt the ability of the Shunglu Committee to stand up to the States and come up with the truth.
By the time that Committee finishes its work, the families in questions would have lost their legitimate battle with the dictatorial State Governments!
I am surprised that the Court's order has glossed over this aspect.
Is there any forum today that can stand up for human rights? On Polavaram, I have drawn a blank with NHRC that is eager to intervene on much smaller issues but not on substantive issues of displacement.
We will all struggle together.
Regards,E.A.S.SarmaFormer Union Power Secretary
On 5/8/06, [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Press Release
8th May 2006
� Supreme Court's cruel statement damns and devastates the Narmada Valley� Supreme Court violates its own former orders in favour of petty politics
� Delayed justice is denied justice
The Supreme Court of India, after so much delay, has finally knocked down the Sardar Sarovar-affected adivasis and farmers by violating its own judgments earlier. The Dam will damn and devastate 35,000 and more families. This has become a death sentence for this most ancient valley and the civilisation. The UPA Government have proved to be in alliance by favouring Modi's violent ways and means to development, and not Gandhi's 'Antyodaya'. It has indeed exhibited courage to allow a project, with claimed benefits and costs to compensation and rehabilitation to be pushed and waters to be filled on the dead bodies of generations old inhabitants of a river valley.
The Court's verdict is against the rights of the oustees who are protected by Article 21 of the Constitution. The verdict shows an anti-poor perspective. Development will now have not only an inhuman but also a brutal face and force.
The Supreme Court has hidden behind an unbelievable reason � disputed facts � to postpone the decision on the raising of the dam height while ignoring the 'undisputed' facts presented by all the parties including the governments on incomplete rehabilitation. It has also bypassed its own 'unchallenged verdicts'. When it became clear to every committee that visited the Valley before � World Bank's, Union of India's to that of Members of Parliament � that injustice was being imposed, and records and reports were flawed, the Court couldn't and didn't take the responsible task of investigation into the jumbling of not figures, but of families in thousands, nor a timely conclusion.
The Court has failed to correct the gross abitrariness of the Executive. We have also witnessed an alliance among all the organs of the State, with arrogance against the poor and no difference between the communal-secular violent ways of Gandhi's Gujarat. The UPA government has decided and conveyed to the country that in this globalised, liberalised era, development decisions will be made by the multinationals to the corporate interests with political distortion of the truth, all of which is obviously dominant in Sardar Sarovar and not mass-rooted democracy or the scientific or rational analysis of social, environmental and economic conditions.
The Centre has made a mockery of its role with regard to the development project-affected, especially the adivasis, while rhetorical respect is paid to them in corporate fora. If this is the response by the System, we will have no alternative but to take it by its horns.
The Valley will face the flood but also challenge the barbaric ways of water management that are all out to kill river valleys including by the Interlinking of Rivers.
It's very obvious that the Oversight Group appointed by the PM is a move to count the bones and ribs of the people in lakhs when the breathlessness is what was to be treated. The Group is beginning with a contradictory terms of reference and has not consulted us till date.
The Court has forgotten its own commitments to the Narmada Water Disputes Tribunal Award, both its letter and spirit, and also the Constitutional right to life. By not giving a decision on cash or land, the Court has failed to stop the massive corruption of crores, as reported by the Comptroller and Auditor General, and unjust betrayal of adivasis as exposed in the case of Bhitada adivasis.
The Court has come to us as a shock. The injustice meted to the people of Narmada cannot be forgotten, who have been fighting for two decades. The decision will result in allowing the Dam and Destruction to be a 'fait accompli'. We will fight to the finish.
Kailash Awasya Dipti Bhatnagar Medha Patkar
SPONSORED LINKSSouth america Safe drinking water Three gorges damYAHOO! GROUPS LINKS
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--
E.A.S.Sarma
14-40-4/1 Gokhale Road Maharanipeta
Visakhapatnam 530002 India
Tel. No.: 91-891-5519858
Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
SPONSORED LINKSSouth america Safe drinking water Three gorges damYAHOO! GROUPS LINKS
- Visit your group "WaterWatch" on the web.
- To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
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- Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the
Yahoo! Terms of Service.
YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS
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[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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