Evian and Roy

There have been two articles on Arundhati Roy's visit to Pakistan, and it seems Madhuri Dixit may, finally, have competition. Why, however, would the elite chattering classes of Pakistan have invited this fine lady, writer, Booker Prize winner, with her strong views against dams and water in India? Could it be, as suggested by other fine writers, that Chinese dams are good but Indian dams are bad? Was she . . .



Thirsty.



I sought some relief for my parched mind. Why does Pakistan really want to continue fighting over Kashmir? As an Indian, who knows what a drain on any economy that State can be, it amazes me. Sure, drainage of economies by rulers is a birthright for governance in our part of the world, but keeping the Kashmir Valley in dead bodies and cheap rice and free electricity is finally going to come out of somebody's pockets. Anyways, this is thin ice, my patriotism as an Indian is questioned every time I seek an answer to this question, never mind the brother and cousin who have already died there . . .



So.



This is a question which I have tried to analyse and find an answer to, for over the last few years at Chowk, and elsewhere, and have failed to get a convincing response to. Why do the Pakis really want to keep going on and on? The usual culprit, religious sympathy, really does not hold too much water because there are, simply, more Muslims in India who would be impacted in a much worse way if it was a simple arithmetic of numbers of people by religion. Biradari or kinsmanship also doesn't seem to flow too well, the Pakistanis I have met in my lifetime seem to have more in common with me or people from Gujarat or Bihar or Bombay, even Goa, than with Kashmiris. Narco-geo-politics doesn't worry about who is ruling here. And as for historical reasons or a greater plan, haven't the Pakistanis had enough with Afghanistan, to worry about the fruits of watering another crop . . .



Water.



That's it. Stares me in the face. So away I go to my resident Pakistani agriculture expert, only problem is, he has been away for over five decades so we pore over whatever material there is on the subject. Not much, but surprising how much you can learn about anything, including Pakistan, courtesy the Internet. Especially since the geography and topography remains almost the same. Wars are fought over water, my co-researcher tells me, nothing new, including Burma in the '40s, back home more recently, we have Tamil Nadu and Karnataka slugging it out over the Cauvery/Kaveri River water-sharing dispute, often using the police forces of one state against the other. Water is the main issue. For what reason? Brothers would kill each other in our old zamindari days, yes. For . . .



Irrigation.



Just about one-tenth of the cultivatable area in today's Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK) is irrigated. Over three-quarter's of today's Pakistan's, on the other hand, is. So, noble intention number one:- Pakistan wants Kashmir so that it can irrigate POK. But that doesn't go down too well with people in Mirpur, who tell us that "their" Mangla Dam only displaces more and more Azad Independent Kashmiris who cannot head for the UK anymore, while making water available for the feudals in the Punjab. This experience, incidentally, is soon to be shared, apparently, by the people of the Northern Areas, with "their" forthcoming Bhasha Dam at Chilas. Pity we couldn't ask Arundhati ji to speak about it. Maybe she has different opinions on dams not in Gujarat, over other rivers, like the Narmada . . .



Indus.



So now we get to consider the western rivers of the Indus, the Jhelum and the Chenab. India, in case people at chowk do not know, has always let these rivers flow freely into Pakistan, as per the Indo-Pak Indus Water Treaty of 1960, even though India has been permitted by the same treaty to construct storage capacity of almost 4 million acre/feet at various points along the route. The reasons for not utilising these completely are, agreed, not born out of a gentle love for neighbours or forgetfulness, but more so because, frankly, we still haven't got our act together on the eastern rivers of the Indus, the Ravi, Beas and Sutlej. So far . . .



Tarbela.



But the Pakistanis had. With Tarbela. Too early, some say. This dam is scheduled to hit dead level around 2005 and latest by January 2007. Did you know that, is it covered in the Pakistani media, between columns upon columns about, say, Palestine? And then where will the crop of cotton spring forth in the spring of 2007, out of Sindh and Punjab, get nurtured from? Out of the internecine warfare between Sindh and Punjab, in Pakistan, for their shares of the Kashmiri Mangla and Thal Canal projects? Will we all import Egyptian long staple for our garments industries, then? No, we may look at wool and water out of Kashmir, because . . .



Chenab.



As we all know, flows East of Srinagar. Look at a physical relief map, please, without bothering for a few minutes about the political boundaries. Is that why Pakistan is fighting for Kashmir, then, so that it can control the Chenab into their Punjab, without any fear of Kashmir getting in the way? It is, therefore, possible that it is all about water.



One heck of a reason to call Arundhati Roy over, though. She would probably stop Pakistani dams too, given half a chance. Kyaa karein, Evian is there, imported, no?



(Veeresh Malik used to hang around JNU in the '70s, too.)