If the hundreds displaced in the Narmada valley owe the good deal they got to the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA), there are thousands of others who have been deprived of benefits they would potentially have got had the pressure group allowed development projects to be completed on time. From Jal Samadhi to Jal Satyagraha to fast-unto-death, the movement spanning Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra has resorted to several tactics in the nearly two-and-a-half decades of its existence, while simultaneously knocking on courts’ doors in its quest for providing what it calls “an alternative to the prevalent policy of development” that has no place for big dams. The Sardar Sarovar Project in Gujarat and Omkareshwar and Indira Sagar in Madhya Pradesh are the major projects on the Narmada that were delayed due to the NBA’s interference. What started as a struggle against the Sardar Sarovar Project in the 1980s now encompasses every dam on the Narmada in MP with the movement’s torchbearer Medha Patkar, who used to frequently threaten to drown herself in the reservoirs of the project, now moving on to other development projects in the country. Alok Agrawal and Chittaroopa Palit, the current protagonists, recently forced the MP government to yield on the rehabilitation of those displaced by the Omkareshwar dam when NBA supporters squatted in the waters for days. Even as the movement was celebrating the outcome of its widely televised water protests, the government struck at the Indira Sagar dam, nipping in the bud a similar protest in support of the displaced there. Shrinking support The movement has supporters in NGOs such as the Right to Food Campaign and had many sympathisers in the media who cut their teeth covering the activism stemming from the Bhopal gas tragedy, as also in the judiciary. Writer Arundhati Roy supports the NBA, as did actor Aamir Khan and late social activist Baba Amte at one point. But the support base is shrinking. Retired bureaucrat M N Buch says he has the highest regard for Patkar for awakening the nation’s conscience to the fact that development projects deprive some people of their livelihood, but says the movement has now been taken over by people who need to be dealt with toughly. Comparing the movement’s tactics with blackmail, he calls it an entirely misplaced agitation. “Be generous with the rehabilitation package but governments should not let the NBA dictate terms. Delays escalate the project costs 50 times.” He says the “jholavala brigade” opposes everything from nuclear to hydel to thermal power projects. “Those who benefit should be made to share the spoils with those who are displaced or deprived of their livelihoods but projects must go on.” There are others who say had it not been for the NBA, the displaced would have got a raw deal with no one to espouse their cause. “Without the benefits of the reservation policy, the downtrodden would have reached nowhere today,’’ a retired official draws a parallel. The NBA says all it stands for is proper rehabilitation of the project-affected who can’t speak for themselves, and nurses no political ambition. “We can’t be held responsible for cost overruns. The government should be blamed because it delays implementing packages given in court orders,” Agrawal claims. An IIT graduate, he alleges that a major chunk of land offered to the affected by the government was found to be unfit for cultivation. Defending the NBA’s tactics, he says the organisation has a democratic right to protest. “Even Mahatma Gandhi undertook fasts. Could he be accused of blackmail?” Agrawal retorts, calling present governments no less colonial in their approach. Former chief secretary Kripa Shankar Sharma says the NBA is making a living out of the struggle. “Even those villagers who accept the government package are instigated. The movement deliberately creates dissatisfaction among them. The tactics are not in the interest of the state or the nation.” Sharma, who was the top bureaucrat between 1997-2001, admits that the MP government has been soft on the NBA, unlike the Gujarat government that dealt with the movement with an iron hand. The NBA has lost several court battles, including one in 2000 against raising the height of the Sardar Sarovar dam, but its biggest legal reversal came in May 2001, when the Supreme Court made strong comments about the movement. “... We reach the inescapable conclusion that the NBA has not acted with a sense of responsibility and so far succeeded in securing favourable orders by misleading the court… It’s desirable that in future the court must view any presentation by the NBA with caution and care, insisting on proper pleadings, disclosure of full facts truly and fairly and, in case it has any doubt, refuse to entertain the NBA.” These comments had come in response to affidavits related to the possession of 284.03 hectares land. The andolan had claimed that cultivators had been dispossessed while a spot inspection ordered by the court found otherwise. A district judge in Indore had videographed the proceedings. An appeal filed by the NBA seeking to expunge the remarks was rejected by the Supreme Court in September 2011. NBA activist Alok Agrawal says the movement will file a curative petition. Tough and soft The difference between the ways Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh have handled the andolan is very striking. While both the BJP and the Congress spoke in nearly one voice in Gujarat by linking the opposition to the dam to its pride, MP has been very soft, especially the Congress. There were many occasions when Medha Patkar found it difficult to enter Gujarat and had to travel incognito. The NBA office in Vadodara had been ransacked. When Digvijay Singh was in power for 10 years, the MP government was in constant touch with the movement. The BJP’s response, however, has been different. The Sunderlal Patwa-government of the BJP of the early 1990s was neither soft nor tough. The Congress had openly thrown its weight behind the recent NBA-led agitations against Omkareshwar and Indira Sagar, with its top leadership meeting protesters. Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan accused the NBA of misleading gullible villagers and called it anti-dam and anti-development. BJP chief Prabhat Jha alleged that NBA hired protesters and accused it of blackmail.