The games words play

I don’t read The Asian Age by choice. It’s the only newspaper that publishes supplements on literature and some of the columnists are really wonderful. I don’t take their news and socio-political analysis seriously because most of the time it is biased and also hovers around the fringes of distortion. For instance, in a recent photo caption, they had written Citizens caught in the crossfire between army and suspected militants. For them, they are always suspected militants, not militants or terrorists, even when they’ve hijacked a bus or made hostage an entire building. This is but a small example. For them the US is an outright villain in attacking a “sovereign” country like Iraq and Iran is a “victim” of international bullying. In the same vein, some non-Muslim religious activity is a cabalistic superstition and a Muslim religious activity is cultural richness. If you take their words at face value, all of a sudden religious despotism doesn’t exist in the world and Islam is the only saving grace. This post is not about bashing a religion or a newspaper; it’s about how words are used to form an opinion and why they should be taken seriously.

Today I was reading an article in the Society magazine (June 2006 issue). It’s about how the NBA (Narmada Bachao Andolan) in general and Medha Patkar in particular has cost the country crores of rupees by stalling the construction of the Sardar Sarovar Dam. Now, to be frank I don’t have an educated opinion on the subject. I only have with me media information that I’ve been exposed to since the early 90s. I’ve never visited the affected areas; I have never personally talked to pro or anti dam activists and I’ve never studied the pros and cons of the development for research basis. I’ve been just intrigued by the way words are used to promote a particular opinion. For instance, read this extract from the article:

Frankly, it’s a dispute between people and progress. And it takes only a casual analysis to realize that in fact, over the years, it (the anti-dam protest) has turned into a conflict against development. The million-dollar question that stares back is who then is responsible for the impediments that led the project to linger? Who are these elements taking the tax wealth of the country for granted?

Do you see the tone of the text? Of course coming from a glossy magazine catering to a certain social stratum you cannot take their definition of “progress” seriously, but it can certainly make a mark on the minds of those people who are reading about the topic for the first time.

“So far Medha Patkar’s campaigns and agitations have contributed towards substantial delays. These campaigns are aimed at stalling or delaying the project,” opines Vyas, a view firmly endorsed by P.K. Laheri, CMD, Sardar Sarovar Project. “The NBA is not a registered body and does not agree to publish accounts. It does not want the Sardar Sarovar Dam, and their concern for all other related issues are only means to stop or delay the dam. The NBA and its activists use their imagination wrongly to spread rumours and apprehensions all the time,” he says.

The article claims that the NBA not only obstructs the dam and hence the progress of the country, it also stops various government and non-government agencies from collecting data from the region.

Often the media has mentioned the high handedness of the NBA activists and the way in which they have calculatedly debarred representatives of NGOs and government officials from entering villages to collect statistics or data about the villages.

The article further goes on to blaming the current food crisis the nation is facing on dubious protest of the NBA.

He points out the hazards the NBA’s behaviour that led to food dependency on other countries. “It is unfortunate that Narmada Bachao Andolan not only held up the project for so long but has also caused direct and indirect losses of billions of rupees. India had to depend on other nations to the extent of 50 per cent of its requirements of oilseeds and pulses,” he (Laheri) says.

So if you go by the article the NBA is the vilest organization existing in the country always out to cause mischief and halt progress. A “foreign” hand is also suspected to top it all!

Often, questions have been raised about its sources of income and the possibility of foreign elements seeking to put brakes on the growth curve of the dam, and in the process, on India’s economy.

The article takes a weird turn when rehabilitation simply becomes a “cost” that has to be needless burdened by the government and hence, the tax payer. If you believe in the article, out of the 41,000 people displaced due to the dam, 30,000 have already been rehabilitated, whereas in the recent TV interview Medha Patkar claimed that only 6-7 obscure families have been rehabilitated. And this is how the article narrates the cost of rehabilitation:

Incidentally the rehabilitation package does not come cheap. For, the cost of rehabilitating one family runs into Rs. 10 lakh, a family being a couple and their minor children. “Yes, it is true. Approximately, the rehabilitation cost per Project Affected Person eligible for the package is around Rs. 10 lakh and on a particular cut off date, the major sons are also eligible to get the rehabilitation package benefits,” says Vyas. Which means an additional financial burden every year in lieu of the newest adults.

So eventually for the author of the article, all the rehabilitation funda eventually boils down to how much more cost the rehabilitation is accruing.

Coming back to words. Now, if you don’t have any opinion regarding the NBA or if you’ve just read about it in the past just as “another news item” you may feel what a sinister game Medha Patkar has been playing. The government, the contractors, the project managers and all those involved with the dam development all of a sudden become angels who are strenuously trying to usher a new era of prosperity and progress. NBA on the other hand comes out to be a nihilistic, dark organization that is not only anti-progress, but is also not concerned about the cause of the valley inhabitants it so vociferously espouses. The article doesn’t talk about the feasibility of big dams in geologically unstably regions, it doesn’t talk about the environmental impact, and it doesn’t even touch the subject of the long-term cost the nation might have to bear due to the construction of the dam. It doesn’t carry a single quote from Medha Patkar or some other person having reservations against the dam. It conveniently ignores the amount of corruption that takes place when such gargantuan projects are taking shape.

The more I read such opinionated texts, the more I feel convinced how necessary it is to garner information from different sources if you are really concerned about remaining informed. It also becomes imperative that such texts are countered with well-informed essays, articles and columns so that readers can form an informed opinion and we’ve also observed how opinions matters in our day-to-day lives.