The spectacular success of Medha Patkar's Narmada Bachao Andolan in manipulating the media for over two decades is unparalleled in the history of social activism. I am no expert on the economic viability of big or small dams. Therefore, I have no verdict to pass on the Sardar Sarovar dam project. All I can say is that the mountains of propaganda material generated by the NBA, including the melodramatic tracts written by Arundhati Roy, convince me that their expertise cannot be trusted either.

Though NBA never tires of pointing to the real and imagined failures of Resettlement & Rehabilitation as the main reason for their opposition to the dam, it has worked tirelessly to obstruct R&R. Medha started her career in 1984 with an Ahmedabad-based organisation called SETU which assigned her the job of assisting Vasudha Dhargamwar of MARG to survey the affected villages to assess the information level of people regarding the impact of the Narmada project and their rights as oustees. This was meant to ensure that people got a fair and just rehabilitation package. But by 1987, Medha had developed extensive contacts of her own and unilaterally parted company with a whole coalition of NGOs sincerely working for R&R to proclaim: "Bandh nahin banega, koi nahin hatega." Her stand became even more uncompromising when, under pressure from the World Bank, Gujarat agreed to give a generous R&R package. Far from welcoming it and joining hands with those who began working to ensure that the government's promise of R&R was translated into concrete action, she declared that the NBA would not accept the package because NBA is in principle opposed to obstructing the "natural" flow of rivers. Even the nomenclature of the movement  "Narmada Bachao Andolan" reveals that the NBA is more obsessed with "saving" the river from human beings than protecting the interests of poor farmers.

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