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Modi conspicuous by his absence

Special Correspondent

Ceremony to mark entry of Narmada waters into Rajasthan

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi

JAIPUR: The absence of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi at the special ceremony on Thursday to mark the entry of Narmada waters into Rajasthan at Sanchore in Jalore district has surprised political observers here. Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje and Mr. Modi were expected to be together at Lalpur village in Sanchore for the symbolic release of water from the Silu head of the 101-km-long canals but the latter had kept his presence confined to a ceremony held at Tharad, a few kilometres away in Gujarat territory, the same day.

The development is all the more surprising as the president of the Rajasthan unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Omprakash Mathur, himself was present at the function. Before his taking over as the State party chief, Mr. Mathur was the party general secretary in charge of Gujarat.

Party sources here are not exactly risking a guess on a likely Modi-Raje confrontation and their rather weak explanation for the Gujarat strongman’s absence at the ceremony—which was a momentous one for the water-scarce north-west Rajasthan—is that Mr. Modi wanted a later date for a joint programme. Ms. Raje, busy with the ongoing week-long “Rajasthan Diwas” celebrations -- for the concluding function of which on March 30 Vice-President Hamid Ansari is arriving -- had reportedly wanted to have it early.

Reports appearing in Gujarat newspapers in recent days had expressed surprise over the total absence of any mention of Ms. Raje in the advertisements put up by the Gujarat Government in connection with the release of water.

The Rajasthan Government’s advertisement on the occasion too did not mention Mr. Modi but his presence was “assumed” on the occasion.

“The Gujarat Chief Minister was expected to grace the function but maybe his preoccupation kept him away,” said Jeevaram Choudhary, BJP MLA from Sanchore, when contacted.

In fact the function, in which Ms. Raje made a political speech even while denouncing politicising such things, was just a formality as the water from the main canal had reached Rajasthan territory about a month back. The whole exercise remained a rather partisan affair as the function did not have participants from the Congress and other parties even while the project had begun some two decades back.

“Even Samarjit Singh, the Congress MLA from Bhinmal, part of the area to be irrigated by the canal, was not invited as a participant,” noted Sanyam Lodha, Congress MLA from the neighbouring Sirohi.

Ms. Raje’s observation at the ceremony that the previous Congress Government’s failure to make available to the Gujarat Government the funds needed for the construction of the canal caused delay in the implementation of the project draw flak from the Congress leaders here.

Reacting to Ms. Raje’s observations, former Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said that the water from the Narmada could have been made available by Gujarat two years back as well. “The release of water to Rajasthan was held up due to the elections in Gujarat in 2007. With an eye on the elections in Rajasthan later this year the water has been released now,” he pointed out.

Mr. Gehlot said while the Narmada waters could prove life-giving for the people of the desert districts of Jalore and Barmer, the BJP Government in the State had not seriously taken up the construction of the canal in the past four years. “The negligence of the Government could be gauged from the fact that even the proposed siphons to the canal could not be constructed and instead pipelines were being used to carry water,” he noted.

In the absence of siphons, numbering four, Gujarat would be providing 500 cusecs of water instead of the share of 2,700 cusecs. The quantum of water being supplied would not be enough to provide drinking water to 1,336 villages and irrigate 2.5 lakh hectares of land as being projected, Mr. Gehlot observed.

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