[Reader-list] Sethusamudram Ship Canal Project - Blueprint for an ecological disaster

[inder salim]

dear Pawan ji

After Shuddha responded ur mail with the opening line :
  " This is one of the rare occasions where I think I am in near total
agreement with Pawan Durani "
.....It was just a matter of time that  DIL KI BAAT ZUBAN PA AHI GAI

Now u write:

" Where are Arundhatis and Medhas of this world ?
 I am sure they dont care about this issue and hence would stay back in
their AS rooms polluting the atmosphere"

now this includes lot of people.  i ask you mr. pawan, Is POLLUTING THE
ATMOSPHERE' not unparliamentary, as u expressed in one of your replies to ur
mails. Why cant we be decent with the other ?

My guess is right, that people who are closer to faith care a little less
about ecology and the other. Octavio Paz observes in Monkey Grammerian that
people in India people worship 'the wind god' but forget  'the wind'.  So,
ecology in the deeper sense of the term, which perhaps includes  the
conceptual understanding about society, environment and other aspects of
human mind.  I am  not saying anything against 'believers' but do we still
feel that religion has a cure for all our ills?  If so, then India is surely
in mess. Please note that ' believers' who live in sync with their
respective ecologies care a lot about their surrounding,  which is markedly
different from the patterns of 'believers' living in big cities.

 u say, that VHP/BJP is good for you as long as they suit you. No, my dear,
it is on the contrary. You are good to them as long it suits them.

We need to know, what form faith takes in cities, and exploits the simpler
version of it in rural India and elsewhere. I believe, that true lovers of
ecology need to be careful about this disguised appropriation
by the right wingers.  I dont mind being labelled as Left winger, though i
am as on date.

love
is





On 9/18/07, Tapas Ray <tapasrayx at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Dear Pawan,
>
> The BJP, VHP. etc., should be shunned because while they fill the void,
> they fill it with hate and violence, whereas the issue at hand is life -
> survival of an ecosystem and of fisherfolk. If Sethusamudram is
> projected as a Hindu issue, why should Muslim or Christian fisherfolk
> and others worry about it? If it is an ecological issue and one of
> livelihood for fisherfolk regardless of religion, everybody will be
> concerned.
>
> I do not know whether the prominent activists you refer to have taken it
> up or not, but if they in deed have not, I would imagine they might be
> wary of being viewed as associating themselves with a group that
> promotes hate and thrives on violence, and has been openly hostile in
> the past (on Narmada, etc.). In other words, I think the cause of
> Sethusamudram would have been well served if the BJP and VHP had left it
> alone and not turned it into a religious issue.
>
> I cannot, and do not want to, speak for the communists. But my personal
> - and possibly limited - understanding is that they have no concern for
> environmental issues whatsoever, just like the Hindutva bloc. In any
> stand they take, on any issue, the sole concern is power - namely,
> whether it is congruent with the aim of gaining political power or not.
> (In my very limited knowledge, this is the legacy of Lenin and Stalin.)
> Once one understands this, it is easy to understand every action of
> theirs.
>
> But the question remains - do you think Sethusamudram would deserve your
> attention even if there was no mythology attached to it?
>
> Tapas
>
>
> Pawan Durani wrote:
> > Dear Mr Ray ,
> >
> > I would not have cared for BJP /VHP protesting against Sethu Samundram
> > project , had the same "bunch" of people come out in streets and held
> > demonstrarions against the project , who had earlier protested narmada
> > project and were part of Chipko movement.
> >
> > Where are Arundhatis and Medhas of this world ?
> >
> > I am sure they dont care about this issue and hence would stay back in
> > their AS rooms polluting the atmosphere.
> >
> > Since they did not step in , why shouldnt I support BJP or VHP ...they
> > are filling in the void.
> >
> > And so far i havent come across the stand of the Communist ? Is it the
> > same as that of Karunnadhi ?
> >
> > Pawan
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > On 9/17/07, *Tapas Ray* <tapasrayx at gmail.com
> > <mailto:tapasrayx at gmail.com>> wrote:
> >
> >     Pawan,
> >
> >     If you care about ecology, don't you think that should be because it
> has
> >     a value in itself, regardless of whether or not it has value as
> sacred
> >     ground/water? If the channel had no mythology attached, would it be
> ok
> >     to alter its ecosystem? The meaning of "more so" is not clear to me.
> The
> >     way I see it, it is either worth preserving or it is not. Can't be
> >     both.
> >
> >     As for the BJP and VHP, which have shown complete insensitivity to
> >     ecological issues, would you like to see them hijack a major
> ecological
> >     issue for their own political ends? As someone who is concerned
> about
> >     ecology, are you not concerned that this would hurt the eco
> movement?
> >
> >     Tapas
> >
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