It is, therefore, naturally proposed that each IIPDAP be given some non-transferable shares … a la Narayana Murthy’s legendary Employee Stock Option Plan (ESOP). If Murthy’s driver can become a crorepati, there's no reason why a tribal jhoomia cannot become one too, along with NEEPCO doing well! It is not unreasonable to believe that as a stake-holder himself, each dam-affected tribal's future is as good as financially guaranteed for generations!

(The details can be worked out and negotiated once the offers are made known to the IIPDAPs' exclusive NGO). Significantly, the Right to Prosperity would contrast sharply with the tragic fates of yesterday's and today's dam-displaced people, who may have been so-called compensated and re-habilitated... but are, today, more likely than not, the dregs of society in their own land! Mainly because they could not handle a measly (for us) but a princely sum (for them) of a lakh or two!

It is the hope of this writer that amongst the three stake-holders – the IIPDAP, the government, the company (e.g. Manipur and NEEPCO) – there'd be tremendous mutual care, co-operation and respect. And for everyone's good... including, you and I far away who happen to be the biggest beneficiaries with nary a loss... growth of the company would be as good as guaranteed.

It is to be noted that the giving of non-transferable shares to each IIPDAP is to be over and above the low level jobs, alternate land, compensation, houses constructed, rehabilitation etc. package promised till date, all of which may, however, be re-negotiated and toned down, because of the new and fairer consideration. Those who think this new understanding, seemingly loaded in favour of the dam-affected, is too much, should not forget that the dam-affected tribals are losing 50/100/200 or more years of oneness, closeness, happiness and provident dependence on their land.

It must be understood that the value of their symbiotic relationship with their land, environment ... everything tangible and intangible ... is something that cannot be calculated by pen on paper. The only way to try and give back is to guarantee security in terms we understand, and pray to god that they take it up and prosper in our ways.

Yet, if even one of them still goes astray – by our yardstick – we are the guilty ones, not them. Because... because... we took away from them something we could never replace ... while we, with the power generated, would prosper in many ways they gift us in blind faith. and look with scorn on those who threw away the golden chances we think we gave them! Pause we must, and question: whose golden?

We must imagine what our fate would have been had priorities been reversed and we city-folks were compelled to live in ready-made chatai huts in their hamlets perched precariously over the Barak, just beyond some deep god-forsaken gorge... but with fish to net, venison to smoke over wood-fire and walk through the most verdant greenery for 20 km to get salt.

And then despite their giving us this golden chance we commit suicide out of loneliness... or run away! You know, their naive wisdom would make them feel guilty. And they'd not hold us in scorn. They'd carry our corpse past scary jungles and escarpments and mourn and bury us as one of their own...

So, I am glad our Prime Minister did not lay the foundation stone. In fact I pray more sense prevails and the Chairperson of the UPA – one who knows why one must do the unexpected – shall speak for the small man... and set the global trend for smaller dams with DASP (dam-affected stock provision, a la ESOP). Then in 2007's April, after all clearances, Dr. Singh helicopters in and lays four foundation stones garlanded by IIPDAPs. And, one sunny winter day a few years hence, Mrs. Sonia herself comes to inaugurate all the four smaller dams along the Barak, driven around at each site by a youthful IIPDAP crorepati!

That is the least that can be done for one's countrymen.

If the company/state says they cannot afford that, then they should think twice. They should learn to realize that for every IIPDAP crorepati they'd be a thousand-fold double crorepatis ... because it is power that is going to power us ahead of the Chinese on this continent. What they do to the tribals they're doing to themselves... for all are one!

3. Only one NGO per dam: This writer feels there is a specific need for the IIPDAPs to represent themselves through their own NGO. In other words, why can't there be only one NGO ... an NGO whose membership shall be restricted to the said every dam-affected man, woman and child only! No outsider, please!

(Now, to address the opinion of some people who think that these tribal folks are too innocent, ignorant and gullible and so need outside help ... why can't the dam-specific NGO engage one or two or more damned good - pun intended - people, say a woman and a man, who can advise them truthfully, and well in all matters. Such selected personalities should not only be co-opted as honorary members of the NGO comprising of the IIPDAPs only, but should even live in the new town-ship for a good part of the year.

Further, as a matter of confidence assurance each dam should have the Central Minister for Power, the Minister i/c of the NE and the Governor of the State of Manipur as honorary Members of each NGO. These dignitaries would provide the muscle and door-opening-respect necessary, when things turn against the small man, as it often happens in this cruel world. Here, in the fitness of things, to protect the small man, on the day of the laying of the foundation stone an agreement should be inked by none other than the inaugurating President or Prime Minister or Chairperson of the UPA, and not some faceless officials of the Company – not necessarily NEEPCO – and the state bureaucracy.

4. Free power: Everyone is talking about free power @ of 12% of 1500MW. This writer is so ignorant that he does not know what free means as far as power is concerned. But if free is really free, then, free for whom is what scares this writer? Yet one thing is sure, this complete ignoramus is excited by free ... and dreams of free in the following sense: Each dam's free power quota, out of its total generation, should have its area/region for distribution earmarked AND that free quota should be sent and consumed directly and freely in the earmarked area/region only! Meaning: that the four dams' future power generated should be sent to tricky old Yurembam, MINUS the four free quotas.

You know, like bonus to the ones sacrificing their flora and fauna, home and hearth, ancestral grave-yards and folk-lore ... This slightly short supply, perhaps by one high tension wire less (I told you I am a layman absolute) is just a precaution to ensure that Manipur – as Yurembam sees it - is not only Babu Para and Sanjenthong! This cautious safeguarding is suggested because this complete ignoramus has heard this Yurembam talk glibly of complex, incoherent things, like national grid, MW, kv and publicizes load-shedding and power-cut schedules ... so much so that we laymen who only know how to switch on and off, forget our right hand from our left, and have become confounded about the sequence of the days of the week and the hours of the day. Confusion apart, this complete layman just wants the quota-ed free power for folks in the hills. Simple as that. Otherwise, don't use that word again, if you the all-knowing mean different!

5. Reserving power: This layman being a tribal who is so used to reservation this and reservation that, that he thinks it is time to reserve the power supply side of things too... so that the hills get, for once, more power, over and above the free, than they may need just now. This excess shall be of the most temporary nature, because the hills will, willy-nilly, start making use of light to change their lives. And this time round, this layman does not mind if the hills (and the highly neglected rural Imphal valley areas) get light at the cost of the few Babu Paras and Sanjenthongs that Yurembam thinks makes Manipur. Because this myopic Manipur will burn MWs for security reasons and air-conditioners. Whereas, in the hills and rural hamlets the kvs shall light study tables and help save the trees around, to start with.

Mid-piece:

The first and last big dam I ever saw was the Bhakra Nangal Dam, way back in 1966. We were three friends, all of 15 years and students of Upper V in a then 120 years old school on a hill-top between Chandigarh and Shimla. On that crisp autumn morning, we found security around the dam was frightfully tight. But we had very very special permission. After some coffee and glorious snacks we were first taken deep down into a vibrating and humming concrete world. We got the chance to walk in a most beautiful yet eerie tunnel in the dam's very bowels, during which, I swear my hairs were standing for over an hour.

I have never been more scared in my life. But I remember running my hand along a vibrating, well-lit, light-cream-coloured tunnel wall that went on and on. My thoughts were: as soon as my fingers feel wetness I am going to run like mad, past the German looking engineer-guide! What I also remember was that the wall was not smooth. It was “pimply,” uniformly pimply all over. I was so wonder-struck by that, that I had the courage to ask our guide about it. I heard of paint guns, sprays, pressure ... and I dreamt that the walls of my home shall one day have a matte finish! That was '66. Today, in 2006, I can only afford cement plaster walls and lime-wash.

An hour later we walked for 10 minutes on the windswept top of the dam, where we were naturally drawn to look to our right. We were awe-struck by the breathtaking beauty of the huge expanse of turquoise blue sheet of the water ringed by blue-green hills. We then casually peered over the railing and got the fright of our lives. The reservoir water seemed so deep and the dam was so damned thin that goose pimples shot up all over us. We smiled bravely at each other and with hands deep in our pockets, trying to earth our shivering bodies, we tried to casually stroll over to the left, where – in a hazy distance - lay the plains of the Punjab.

Coming to the barricade we peered over and instantly understood what spine-chilling meant. We were so high up in the air ... far above the ant sized power-house far below ... we were like on a white string with a whole Himalayan ocean behind us and nothing but Pratap Singh Kairon's land of the five rivers somewhere in the distance below! Oh, without a word, we quickly beat a hasty retreat to where the concrete met the hills and the parked Fiat car. It took a long drive, the warmth and grime of the bustling town of Nangal and its smoke belching fertilizer plant where we gobbled a hot lunch to put some of our fears away. We were so awed, and belittled, by our Bhakra experience that we did not speak till we felt safe enough at Chandigarh late that night. But our Geography book's fact we confirmed was that the Punjab prospered beyond dreams, because of the Bhakra Nangal Dam. It is a different matter that since then I have been able to avoid going to dams.

Except two months ago when I strode casually along the teeny-weeny Khuga Dam, right here in my own backyard! Then, and only then, triggered by the slugging match going on between pro and anti-Tipaimukh Dam, long dormant pictures and thoughts on dams have taken up some of my thought-space. And so I hope my evolving thoughts on dams will help see to four small and useful dams coming up ... but only on the condition that the small man can become a crorepati!

I have nothing too much against dams, especially if they can change the fortunes of a people. Say what you will, but the fact is that Punjab is very rich today. Manipur desperately needs that kind of miraculous transformation.

Nehru's modern temple can be torn asunder by critics today, and why not? But that was almost half a century ago. Today, there is no reason not to build new shrines to prosperity. We can use the best of technology harmonized with human and environmental considerations to see us through well into the next century. By which time we may be able to vaporise - poof – any un-suitable dam or thing. Change will bring change and so it is just that our priorities be right, and in giving back a return, we must involve head, heart and hand.

Endpiece

Before clicking a shutdown, let me at least say something about how we should not use the power that the four new dams will give us.

No polluting industries: Much as we need development in the form of industries, I am deadly against industries that belch and spew dark smoke, as if from Blake's satanic mills. They'd spoil Manipur's green. For certainly, anything that emits dark or mustard yellow smoke shall also leak horrible effluents into our streams, rivers and lakes and clog, with chemicals, our sweet ground-water. What I'd like is for a clear home-spun Manipuri policy on the kinds of industry Manipur should permit on its soil.

I'll just make two points:

First, let dam-affected-friendly generation of hydro-electricity through small dams be one of our approved industries.

Second, let the generation of electricity through our said dams be only for the kind of industries we give the green signal to. So, our industrial policy should be clean, green, small and beautiful through and through. Thus, even if Shri Big Industrialist wants to build a Rs.50,000 crore satanic mill, the policy should slam the door on his face! Whereas, a Rs.10 crore clean, green, small and beautiful investment should have the red carpet rolled out.

Read Part 1 | Part 2 |