The Issue of FARAKKA: 
An Introduction

 

V.   WATER-related Promises Can't be SOLID!

It was only natural that India's neighbor, Pakistan, would be concerned, especially about the then East Pakistan.

Even without any rhetoric from the Indian side, the concern level of its neighbors would have been level. The kind of rhetoric as well as the fixation with Farakka Barrage at the proposed location was an additional source of alarm.

In response to a query from a West Bengal M.P. regarding a suggestion from the World Bank about an alternative site, Mr. S.K. Patil, the Minister of Transport of the Government of India, replied: "... Ganga Barrage is all the more necessary, NO MATTER HOW MANY PORTS CAME IN". [Begum, p. 78, quoting Lok Shobha Debate in 1958] The minister also clarified that the cost factor was irrelevant to this project.

"There is no question of foreign exchange and money. I could say that the project is so important and so very necessary that even if one pie does not come from outside even then we have to starve ourselves and take this project in hand, because the project is so important that it will ultimately mean giving life to this country." [ibid.]

Such alarming rhetoric heightened the concern of Pakistan, which was further exacerbated by the fact that the the report of the only outside expert employed by India was rendered "classified" and the experts employed by Pakistan were not provided the necessary data or access to the information that made this Farakka Barrage "so important that it will ultimately mean giving life to this country".

This culture and mode of secrecy are so much so that as late as in 1971, the Editorial of the Indian Journal of Power and River Valley Development (July, 1971) writes in regard to Indus Water Treaty: "We would urge the authorities to publish their version of the proposed scheme together with the necessary data. Before that, it is not proper to commit the country to any concrete
proposal and raise high hopes." [Debes Mookerjea in Sunil Sarma, p. 121]

Of course, there was internal Indian politics at play as far as the "popular belief" that "Ganga Barrage is a must for the Calcutta Port." "At the time of undertaking the project Kapil Bhattacharya, the the Hydraulic expert of West Bengal referred to this public belief and cautioned: '... By pressure of misguided public opinion the Government of India is going to implement
it." [Begum, p. 79, citing the work of Ben Crow]

While insisting on Farakka Barrage at the proposed location as the only option for India, and asserting that it considered the matter as life-and-death for India, all along India was employing soothing rhetorics in the form of promise and assurance.

To allay the concerns of Pakistan, Nehru told in the Indian Parliament in 1961, "It is our view that there should be no real injury to Pakistan by this scheme ... it is Pakistan's fear and apprehension that they will be affected." [Begum, p. 99, quoting Lok Shobha Debates.]

But both privately and publicly, India was claiming that it would keep its neighbor's interest in mind. As K. K. Framji pointed out, "While ensuring that Calcutta is preserved by the only lasting measure that is conceivable, INDIA WILL TAKE ALL PRECAUTIONS TO SEE THAT CALCUTTA IS NOT SAVED AT THE PRICE OF CAUSING HARM TO EAST PAKISTAN." [Sunil Sarma, p. 108]

At the July 1973 ministerial level meeting between Bangladesh and India, "there was a commitment by the Indian side that 'a mutually acceptable solution will be arrived at BEFORE operating the Farakka Barrage.'" [Begum, p. 109]

Well, everyone knows what happened. Farakka Barrage began to operate BEFORE "a mutually acceptable solution" was arrived at. The reality is that WATER-related promises can't be SOLID!

How "Pak' (pure) was Pakistan's handling of the issue?

Go to Part VI: Pakistan's handling - "The Smell of Fried Fish" Approach.
Go to the Farakka Index

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