The End of Imagination (47 page)

1. Mehta,
   Power Play
   , xv, 20–21, 151–58; Agence France-Presse, “Massive US-Backed Power Project Awaits Indian Court Ruling,” August 25, 1996; Kenneth J. Cooper, “Foreign Power Plant Blooms; Low-Key India Venture Avoids Enron's Woes,”
   International Herald Tribune
   , September 11, 1996; Praful Bidwai, “Enron Judgment: Blow to Energy Independence,”
   Times of India
   , May 22, 1997; and Praful Bidwai, “The Enron Deal Must Go: Albatross round Public's Neck,”
   Times of India
   , May 4, 1995.
   
2. Agence France-Presse, “Enron Power Project Survives Court Challenge,” May 3, 1997.
   
3. “The Dabhol Backlash,”
   Business Line
   , December 5, 2000; Sucheta Dalai, “No Power May End Up Being Better Than That High Cost Power,”
   Indian Express
   , December 3, 2000; Soma Banerjee, “State Plans to Move Court on Tariff Revision Proposal,”
   Economic Times of India
   , May 26, 2000; Madhu Nainan, “Indian State Says It Has No Money to Pay Enron for Power,” Agence France-Presse, January 8, 2001; Khozem Merchant, “Enron Invokes Guarantee to Retrieve Fees from Local Unit,”
   Financial Times
   , January 31, 2001, 7; S. N. Roy, “The Shocking Truth about Power Reforms,”
   Indian Express
   , February 28, 2000; and Anthony Spaeth, “Bright Lights, Big Bill,”
   Time
   (Asian edition) 157 (February 26, 2001): 8, http://www.time.com/time/asia/biz/magazine/0,9754,99899,00.html.
   
4. “India: Maharashtra State Electricity Board Stops Buying Power,”
   Hindu
   , May 30, 2001; Celia W. Dugger, “High-Stakes Showdown: Enron's Fight over Power Plant Reverberates beyond India,”
   New York Times
   , March 20, 2001, C1 (hereafter Dugger, “High-Stakes Showdown”).
   
5. Mehta,
   Power Play
   , 3; Dugger, “High-Stakes Showdown”; “Red Tape and Blue Sparks”; “A Survey of India's Economy,” 9–10; GOI,
   Ninth Five Year Plan, 1997–2002
   ; and GOI, Press Information Bureau, fact sheet.
   
6. S. Balakrishnan, “FIS in U.S. Press Panic Button as MSEB Fails to Pay Enron,”
   Times of India
   , January 7, 2001; Madhu Nainan, “Indian State Says It Has No Money to Pay Enron for Power,” Agence France-Presse, January 8, 2001; and Khozem Merchant, “Enron Invokes Guarantee to Retrieve Fees from Local Unit,”
   Financial Times
   , January 31, 2001, 7.
   
7. Pratap Chatterjee, “Meet Enron, Bush's Biggest Contributor,”
   Progressive
   64 (September 2000): 9. See also Dugger, “High-Stakes Showdown.”
   
8. Dugger, “High-Stakes Showdown”; Praful Bidwai, “Congentrix = (Equals) Bullying Tricks,”
   Kashmir Times
   , December 27, 1999.
   
9. Center for Science and Environment,
   State of India's Environment: The Citizens' Fifth Report
   , pt. 2,
   Statistical Database
   (New Delhi: Center for Science and Environment, 1999), 203; Union Power Minister Suresh Prabhu, press conference, Hyderabad, cited in
   Business Line
   , July 21, 2001; and Abusaleh Shariff,
   India: Human Development Report—A Profile of Indian States in the 1990s
   (New Delhi: National Council of Applied Economic Research / Oxford University Press, 1999), 238.
   

1. UNDP 2000, table 18, Aid and Debt by Recipient Country, p. 221. See also ENS Economic Bureau, “India Inching towards Debt Trap,”
   Indian Express
   , February 23, 1999. See also Economist Intelligence Unit, “India: External Debt.”
   
2. WCD Report, p. 11 and table 1.2.
   
3. See 110–12, above; WCD Report, table 1.1, Dams Currently under Construction, p. 10, and table V.1, Top 20 Countries by Number of Large Dams, p. 370; and the website of the International Commission on Large Dams, http://www.icold-cigb.org/home.asp.
   
4. Modern Temples of India: Selected Speeches of Jawaharlal Nehru at Irrigation and Power Projects
   , ed. C. V. J. Sharma (Delhi: Central Board of Irrigation and Power, 1989), 40–49. See 107, 110, above.
   
5. PTI News Agency (New Delhi), “India: Construction Begins on ‘Controversial' Narmada Dam,” BBC Worldwide Monitoring, October 31, 2000; Vinay Kumar, “People Cheer as Work on Narmada Dam Resumes,”
   Hindu
   , November 1, 2000; “Violence Mars Gujarat Govt's Narmada Bash,”
   Times of India
   , November 1, 2000; and “Ministers Attacked, Cars Burnt at Narmada Dam Site,”
   Hindustan Times
   , November 1, 2000.
   
6. WCD Fact Sheet, “Dams and Water: Global Statistics: India: 4,291 Large Dams and 9% of the World Dam Population.” See also Himanshu Thakker, “Performance of Large Dams in India: The Case of Irrigation and Flood Control,” paper presented at the World Commission on Dams Regional Consultation, Sri Lanka, December 1998.
   
7. R. Rangachari et al., “Large Dams—India's Experience: A WCD Case Study Prepared as an Input to the Word Commission on Dams,” World Commission on Dams Country Review Paper, November 2000 (hereafter Rangachari et al., “Large Dams—India's Experience”).
   
8. Ibid., 25.
   
9. Ashok Gulati, “Overflowing Granaries, Empty Stomachs,”
   Economic Times of India
   , April 27, 2000; UNDP 2000, table 4, Human Poverty in Developing Countries, p. 170.
   
10. Gail Omvedt, “Editorial: Rotting Food,”
    Hindu
    , October 23, 1999. See also Shri Sriram Chuahan, Minister of States for Food and Public Distribution, Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food, and Public Distribution, GOI, “Loss of Foodgrains,” press release, August 8, 2000.
    
11. See 113, above; “Indian Govt to Protest World Commission on Dams Report,”
    Asia Pulse
    , February 5, 2001; Kalpana Sharma, “Misconceptions about Dams Commission,”
    Hindu
    , September 11, 1998; “Keshubhai Warns Dam Inspection Team May Be Held,”
    Indian Express
    , September 9, 1998; “Gujarat Bans Visit of ‘Anti-dam' Body,”
    Hindu
    , September 5, 1998; Kalpana Sharma, “Damning All Dissent,”
    Hindu
    , September 21, 1998; WCD website, http://www.internationalrivers
    .org/; “Medium and Large Dams Damned,”
    Business Standard
    , September 23, 2000; “SC Wants Time Limit on Closure of Polluting Units,”
    Times of India
    , January 25, 2001; and Rangachari et al., “Large Dams—India's Experience,” 116.
    

1. Ibid.
   
2. US Department of Energy, Energy Information Administration,
   International Energy Outlook 1998
   ; see 111, 142–43, above; and Rangachari et al., “Large Dams—India's Experience,” 132.
   
3. “The Human Cost of the Bargi Dam,” http://www.narmada.org/nvdp.dams/bargi/bargi.html;  “Dam Ousters to Go on Hunger-Strike,”
   Statesman
   , August 13, 1997.
   
4. WCD Report, 106–07; Sanjay Sangvai,
   The River and Life: People's Struggle in the Narmada Valley
   (Mumbai: Earthcare Books, 2000), 28; and “Human Cost of the Bargi Dam.”
   
5. See 123, above.
   
6. WCD Report, 104–05; see 122–23, above; Robert Marquand, “Indian Dam Protests Evoke Gandhi,”
   Christian Science Monitor
   , August 5, 1999, 1; “The Sardar Sarovar Dam: A Brief Introduction,” http://www.narmada.org
   /sardarsarovar.html; Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA), “Displacement, Submergence and Rehabilitation in Sardar Sarovar Project: Ground Reality Indicating Utter Injustice,” http://www.narmada.org/sardar-sarovar/sc.ruling/Displacement
   .rehab.html; and Free the Narmada Campaign, India, “Who Pays? Who Profits? A Short Guide to the Sardar Sarovar Project,” http://www.narmada.org/sardar
   -sarovar/faq/whopays.html.
   
7. International Rivers Network, “Confidential World Bank Evaluation Admits Future of Narmada Dam Uncertain,” press release, May 16, 1995; Office of Director-General, Operations Evaluation, World Bank, Memorandum to the Executive Directors and the President, March 29, 1995; MNC Masala, “The World Bank and Sardar Sarovar Project: A Story of Unacceptable Means towards Unacceptable Ends,” CorpWatch, n.d.; WCD Report, 26; and Morse and Berger,
   Sardar Sarovar
   .
   
8. Celia W. Dugger, “Opponents of India Dam Project Bemoan Green Light from Court,”
   New York Times
   , October 20, 2000, A9.
   
9. Free the Narmada Campaign, “Who Pays? Who Profits?”
   
10. “The Maheshwar Dam: A Brief Introduction” and related links, http://www.narmada.org/maheshwar.html; Meena Menon, “Damned by the People: The Maheshwar Hydro-Electricity Project in Madhya Pradesh,”
    Business Line
    , June 15, 1998; Sangvai,
    River and Life
    , 81–84; and Richard E. Bissell, Shekhar Singh, and Hermann Warth,
    Maheshwar Hydroelectric Project: Resettlement and Rehabilitation—An Independent Review Conducted for the Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), Government of Germany
    , June 15, 2000 (hereafter Bissell Report).
    
11. Mardana Resolution, http://www.narmada.org/maheshwar/mardana.declaration
    .html; NBA, “Hundreds of Maheshwar Dam Affected People Demonstrate at IFCI, Delhi,” press note, November 16, 2000, http://www.narmada.org/nba
    -press-releases/november-2000/ifci.demo.html; and Sangvai,
    River and Life
    , Annexure 4, 194–97, and Annexure 6, 200–201.
    
12. Heffa Schücking, “The Maheshwar Dam in India,” March 1999, http://www.narmada.org/urg990421.3.html.
    

1. Menon, “Damned by the People.”
   
2. “S. Kumars Forays into Ready-to-Wear Apparel,”
   India Info
   , December 10, 2000, and “S. Kumars Ups Ads-Spend by 66% with Kapil Dev on Board,”
   India Express
   , July 8, 1999.
   
3. Menon, “Damned by the People”; “Do or Die: The People versus Development in the Narmada Valley.”
   
4. “German Firms Pull Out of MP Dam Project,”
   Statesman
   , April 21, 1999. See also Desikan Thirunarayanapuram, “Siemens Role in Dam Project Doubtful,”
   Statesman
   , June 30, 2000.
   
5. Bissell Report.
   
6. “Leaked Letter Shows German Company Quits Bid for Dam Credit,”
   Deutsche Presse-Agentur
   , August 25, 2000; “US Firm Pulls Out of Narmada Hydel Project,”
   Statesman
   , December 13, 2000.
   
7. “PM's Is Going to Be a ‘Power Trip,'”
   Indian Express
   , September 4, 2000.
   
8. “Ogden Pulls Out from Maheshwar Hydel Unit,”
   Indian Express
   , December 8, 2000.
   
9. Mark Landler, “Hi, I'm in Bangalore (But I Can't Say So),”
   New York Times
   , March 21, 2001, A1.
   
10. David Gardiner, “Impossible India's Improbable Chance,” in
    The World in 2001
    (London: Economist, 2000), 46.
    
11. Prabhakar Sinha, “Tatas Plan Foray into Call Centre Business,”
    Times of India
    , October 7, 2000.
    

8. The Ladies Have Feelings, So . . .
Shall We Leave It to the Experts?

1. Roger Cohen, “Germans Seek Foreign Labor for New Era of Computers,”
   New York Times
   , April 9, 2000, 1.
   
2. Report at Rediff.com, http://www.rediff.com/news/2001/may/26pic3.htm.
   
3. For data on poverty and illiteracy in India, see UNDP 2000, table 1, Human Development Index, p. 159; table 4, Human Poverty in Developing Countries, p. 170; and table 19, Demographic Trends, p. 225. Reports also available online at http://www.undp.org and at the site of the UNDP Program in India, http://www.undp.org.in/.
   
4. Arundhati Roy,
   The Cost of Living
   (New York: Modern Library, 1999), which includes “The End of the Imagination,” published in
   Outlook
   and
   Frontline
   magazines in August 1998, and “The Greater Common Good,” published by
   Outlook
   and
   Frontline
   in May–June 1999. “Power Politics: The Reincarnation of Rumpelstiltskin,” the seventh chapter in this volume, appeared originally in
   Outlook
   , November 27, 2000. See http://www.frontlineonline.com and http://www
   .outlookindia.com/ Arundhati Roy,
   The God of Small Things
   (New York: HarperPerennial, 1998).
   
5. UNDP 2000, table 19, Demographic Trends, p. 225.
   
6. Ashok Gulati, “Overflowing Granaries, Empty Stomachs,”
   Economic Times of India
   , April 27, 2000.
   

1. UNDP 2000, table 4, Human Poverty in Developing Countries, p. 170, and table 19, Demographic Trends, p. 225. See also Gardiner, “Impossible India's Improbable Chance,” 46.
   
2. Joseph Kahn, “U.S.-India Agreement,”
   New York Times
   , January 11, 2000, 4.
   
3. Dev Raj, “Land Acquisition Bill Worse Than Colonial Law,” Inter Press Service, December 3, 1998; S. Gopikrishna Warrier, “India: NGOs for Including Relief, Rehab Provisions in Land Act,”
   Business Line
   , February 13, 2001.
   
4. Associated Press, “Anti-dam Activists Vow to Protest India's Supreme Court Ruling,” October 20, 2000. For more on the Sardar Sarovar dam project, see “The Greater Common Good”; “The Sardar Sarovar Dam: A Brief Introduction,” Friends of the River Narmada, http://www.narmada.org/sardarsarovar.html, and related links; and Sangvai,
   River and Life
   .
   
5. Frederick Noronha, “Dam Protesters Battle Police for Access to World Bank President,” Environment News Service, Global News Wire, November 13, 2000.
   
6. See 113, above; Rangachari et al., “Large Dams—India's Experience,” 116–17, 130–31. For additional information on Big Dams, see Patrick McCully,
   Silenced Rivers: The Ecology and Politics of Large Dams
   , enlarged and updated edition (London: Zed Books, 2001), and the website of the International Rivers Network, http://www.internationalrivers.org/.
   
7. For more information on displacement from Sardar Sarovar, see WCD Report, box 4.3, p. 104. See also Rangachari et al., “Large Dams—India's Experience,” 116–17; Planning Commission, GOI, “Irrigation, Flood Control and Command Area Development: Rehabilitation and Resettlement,” chap. 4 in
   Mid-term Appraisal of the Ninth Five Year Plan: Final Document (1997–2002)
   (Delhi: Planning Commission, 2000), 89, para. 68; see 114, above; Morse and Berger,
   Sardar Sarovar
   , 62; and GOI,
   28th and 29th Report of the Commissioner for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes
   (New Delhi: Government of India, 1988).
   
8. “Indian Govt to Protest World Commission on Dams Report”; Sharma, “Misconceptions about Dams Commission”; “Keshubhai Warns Dam Inspection Team May Be Held”; “Gujarat Bans Visit of ‘Anti-dam' Body”; and Sharma, “Damning All Dissent.”
   
9. WCD Report. See the WCD website, http://www.internationalrivers.org/; “Medium and Large Dams Damned.”
   
10. Peter Popham, “Squalid, Disgusting, Toxic: Is This the Dirtiest City on the Planet?”
    Independent
    , October 27, 1997, E9; World Bank, “World Bank Says World's Worst Slums Can Be Transformed,” press release, June 3, 1996, web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/NEWS/0,,contentMDK:20011723~pagePK:64257043~piPK:437376~theSitePK:4607,00.html.
    
11. GOI, Ministry of Environment and Forests,
    White Paper on Pollution in Delhi: With an Action Plan
    (New Delhi: Ministry of Environment and Forests, 1997), http://envfor.nic.in/divisions/cpoll/delpolln.html.
    
12. WCD Report, p. 11 and table 1.2.
    
13. “NBA Case: Supreme Court Adjourns Hearing on Gujarat Plea,”
    Hindu
    , July 30, 1999; T. Padmanabha Rao, “India: Supreme Court Unhappy with NBA Leaders, Arundhati Roy,”
    Hindu
    , October 16, 1999.