It is akin to the pan parag* ad on television. The smiling salesman has one for everyone. With 30 possible river links up his sleeve, Suresh Prabhu, the chairperson of the Task Force on Interlinking of Rivers, can satisfy a billion people. From a single river link to an incredible long chain, the miracle salesman can cater to every taste. Heedless of the inherent dangers of the product, the salesman makes you believe that this is the next best thing after independence that could indeed happen to the country.
Suresh Prabhu´s zeal to market the idea is evidently inexhaustible. In a gathering of the devout at the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), which was wholehearted in its endorsement of the government´s stance, Prabhu said, "The interlinking of rivers will change the shape of India". Unmindful of whether this scheme defaces the geography of the country irreversibly or infringes the riparian rights of communities permanently; Prabhu only looks at it as an irresistible opportunity to integrate the country.
It is indeed remarkable that an idea that is as powerful as the government claims it to be, based as it is on an allegedly rigorous `need assessment´, needs any marketing at all let alone a vigorous one of the kind that the minister has undertaken. Clearly, it is an a priori proposition that is now being legitimised. How else can one explain the need to link rivers in order, as is also suggested, to provide potable water when official data suggests that 80 per cent of the population is already being supplied drinking water? Can the proposal be justified on the grounds of creating additional irrigation capacity when there are no buyers in the country for some 48 million tonnes of grain harvest?
Interestingly, the proposal starts with the assumption that the rivers must be linked to tame recurring droughts, and then proceeds to justify links and transfers. Expectedly, additional features like inland navigation, power generation and enhanced growth rate are thrown in for good measure, to add more substance to the sales pitch. Indeed, the spin on the river-linking proposal is loaded with such a variety of benefits that no one in a population of more than a billion is likely to feel left out of the game.