The Mahanadi water sharing dispute between Chhattisgarh and Odisha, which had scaled down for a period after the panchayat election, again came to the fore recently. This time there was not another round of war of words between the leaders of the two States though.
The Agami Odisha, a civil society forum, successfully organised dharna in New Delhi on the Mahanadi issue with tremendous support from people from all walks of life. Though the issue was given an emotional colour for vested interest by the major political parties in Odisha like the BJD, the BJP and the Congress, this time the parties were at the back while the non political forum was at the front.
The idea is to stop shedding crocodile tears over Mahanadi by political bickering and create an environment to effectively vent the troubles of Odisha due to the unilateral dams in the Mahanadi upstream and draw nation-wide solidarity to the cause.
After its victory in the National Green Tribunal (NGT), which in a recent order banned further construction of dams by the Chhattisgarh Government, the Agami Odisha virtually got a shot in its arm.
The forum initially got support of all the political parties but subsequently while the BJD was found to be backing the movement more forcefully, the BJP response turned somewhat lukewarm. Most BJD MPs came to the rally at Jantar Mantar, but the BJP’s Odisha stalwarts and two Central Ministers Jual Oram and Dharmendra Pradhan, were missing. The State BJP took a dig at the campaign that it was sponsored by the BJD.
As long as the BJP Government of Chhattisgarh has the backing of the Modi Government, it is sure that Odisha cannot put any pressure on it to stop its activities on the Mahanadi upstream, do what it may at home. It was evident from the district level agitation by the BJD in Odisha which had no bearing on Chhattisgarh.
Rather, Chhattisgarh CM Raman Singh came to western Odisha for campaign during the panchayat elections as a BJP star campaigner and managed to woo voters for his party without altering his stand on the Mahanadi.
And the Odisha BJP reaped electoral benefits.
Now, both the BJP and the BJD are already into election mode even though the Assembly poll in Odisha and general elections are nearly two years away. In the between the two neighbouring States, Chhattisgarh's defeat, if this happens at all, would be the BJP's defeat and Odisha's defeat would be the BJD's. So, both would try to create uproar over the issue till the election, knowing full well that no imminent solution is in their interest.
If the Agami Odisha wants a fast solution, it has to engage in activities other than just mobilising support. No doubt, leaders across party line would be happy to join hands with the new initiative, though they would be happier if a solution was reached via their banners. Apart from the legal course, the forum has to collect reliable information on the actual position of the river, the dams at the upstream and how the dams would affect the people in the downstream.
For this, it has to rope in experts, environmentalists and social activists. The people of both States, in particular, and the whole country in general, need to be told about the entire scenario in black and white. Excessive propaganda and political tilt would not help.