The Controversial Tehri Dam in the Himalayas
This article was first published in the print edition of Manushi Journal. (Issue-91, Nov-Dec 1995)
Imagine that a jumbo jet is ready to take off with a huge load of passengers and cargo. A few of the passengers discover a time-bomb underneath one of the seats; they then look out the window of the plane and see that one of the wings of the plan is dangling in the air and might fall off at any moment. They inform the other passengers, and all leave the plane in panic. The airline management, instead of taking the plane off the runway for a thorough security checkup and for repairs, and then making other arrangements for the passengers, call in the police, and get many of theagitated passengers beaten up and their leaders arrested for creating a law and order problem. Nevertheless, the passengers persist in demanding that the flight not take off with them aboard. The management then takes aside a few leading protesters, offers them a free ticket each on a different plane and some bribe money to pretend to board the flight in order to break the unity and resolve of the protestors. Even so, the rest of the passengers continue sitting on a dharna saying that they will not move till the flight is cancelled and an enquiry ordered into the negligence. They demand a different plane for their trip, and that the management send the defective plane for a thorough check- up. The passengers are, however, forcibly rounded up and loaded onto the dangerous plane simply because cancelling the flight would mean having to give a refund to the passengers and consequently would result in financial loss to the management…