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Dam n the rivers

  • 14/12/2002

true, everybody loves a good drought. But the latest mantra is the interlinking of the country's rivers. Everybody loves it too. So much so, that it seems to be a favoured jingle with most political parties.

It is an old virus. The first sign of its new mutation showed up in our scientist President. Then a Chief Justice asked the government to complete in 10 years what a government pre-feasibility study said would take at least 43 years and Rs 5,60,000 crore. Now it is the Prime Minister talking about interlinking of rivers to deal with the crippling drought facing us today. When the head of the executive uses it to deal with the political challenge from the opposition (in the face of the Gujarat elections that are so crucial to his party bruised badly by recent electoral setbacks), you are talking real. Talking real in an unreal world.

Because if our politicians were in this world, they would understand that what they need is a plan to deal with today's drought. The inter-linking of rivers is a smoke-screen and a cruel one at that, when you begin to understand just how

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