Propaganda,water and 2 states

Its quite an amusing fact to notice, that three popular entities , enjoying considerable importance in the contemporary times has crossed over and concurrent themselves as the subject of my thought this cloudy afternoon.I am pointing to nothing else, but the title of the post, propaganda, water and more interestingly two(2) states. The earliest of all the three is something I discovered ,was used as a lethal tool right from the inception of the world wars, the cold war and wherever there was a struggle for power, by raking up some sort of a vested interest.(For those who don't know : propaganda simply means an outlay of biased information.) With the election season occupying the majority of the news columns in newspapers and news channels, as a student of political science, I was ardently interested in waking up every morning and along with my morning cup of tea, devouring , what each political party had to say about each other and each others' false promises and mud slinging of such fashion, off the newspaper. As they say you only learn from experience, I slowly learnt that, this morning exercise of mine, was exactly an example of how you get sucked into propaganda. I was fortunate enough , to imbibe a very practical example of how propaganda operated and have managed to remain a little apolitical , at least the aMITTHY slinging part (apologies for the pun) until the results come out on may the 16 th . No, don't worry, this is not an election commentary. Propaganda thrives as a potent weapon in politics.Hence the mention. The second issue on the tagline is water.You don't need an introduction to this guy right here. Deepa Mehta has even made a movie on him.Its summer time, I was in Chennai recently,I understood the linkage between 'doing your business' ,not having enough water to take care of it, long queues and women with fluorescent plastic pots.The well in my compound dried up. I'm in the god's own country. That's not supposed to happen here!Past all the water talk, have two states.Or 2 states. The latter would grab your attention a little more I know.A movie of the same title is running to packed houses throughout the country.Its an inter state love story based on a book of the same name from the Bhagat guy who has given us,other pseudo-Bollywood script material books.

Well , this didnt turn out to be movie review either.And I'm afraid, its anything but an 'INTER-STATE LOVE STORY'. There is definitely a lot of drama , regional sentiments running sky high and also a lot of action with desi made Kathiaals, vadivaals and trishuls, whatever the angry dravidian mobs managed to garner, at the sight of each others state registered license plates.
Today afternoon, at lunch,the news channels ran the news of the Mullaperiyar dam verdict being announced by the Honourable Supreme Court of India.Among the minutes of the report, there came pointed out that it wasn't going to be a favourable situation for the state of Kerala.The water levels were to be raised to 142 m, that the Tamil Nadu government demanded in order to facilitate irrigation in its water starved districts of Theni, Madurai, Dindigul and Sivaganga. The Kerala government's demand for the construction of a new dam was quashed, and of course, there is to be a hartal tomorrow, as a mark of protest against the S.C. decision.This is where ,all the three entities talked about in the beginning converge.Propaganda,water and 2 states.
The issue has been a flashpoint for both the states since the 1980s. The Kerala government , through multiple environmental assessment panels and expert reviews have concluded that the surkhi built dam, will not survive an earthquake, if it happens. Through copious amounts of video footage of the cracks on the dam, information about the 999 year lease agreements, and an estimate that four districts of southern Kerala would go down along with the water , if Mullapperiyar gives away, people sure had tension brewing on either planks of the dravidian peninsula.
Tamil Nadu and the Puratchi Thalaivi herself, came out in the online (liberally substituting the conventional  open) with an appeal to her brethren in Kerala, with a rhetoric about the vested interests at play and taking the example of the Kallanai dam , built by Karikala Chola, boasting a lifespan of over 1900 years, minisculing the young 119 , that the Mullaperiyar has claimed to gush through. She claims the dam to be built of the same surkhi , that is the substance of the Mullapperiyar and blatantly dismisses the threats of an earthquake taking the dam apart, by citing South India as an area of very less earthquakes, and the pointing to numerous maintenance activities taken care of , by T.N. engineers.
Now close notice tells us that we have been dealing with propaganda all this while.Biased explanations, from the heads of 2 states regarding water that both of them consider as a life giver or taker, under different circumstances in their respective states. The worst part of propaganda is that , it is the common people through which it manifests. Sabarimala devotees from Tamil Nadu claim to have been attacked by malayalis when they spotted the TN on their license plates, and friends of mine, studying across the border have explained to me how they were safely taken to just across Palakkad and asked to go home, since Tamil Nadu is no longer malayali tolerant. As a malayali, I would be expected to buy  Kerala's woes of  the flowing away of four districts because of the Mullaperiyar's destruction, but I have become a sceptic ,since I came across propoganda. Initially I wonder what the Kerala government's reservation to giving our tamil brethren a little water. After all, there are loads of malayalis studying and working in Dindigul and the neighbouring areas.But then I look at the cracks and reports from IIT and start thinking , that the dam is definitely breathing its last gallons of water.Moreover, Madame Jayalalithaa's  claims of Kallanai standing tall without damages cant be taken at face value.

http://d3j5vwomefv46c.cloudfront.net/photos/large/466346942.jpg?1323242665.
A look at the above image would tell you that the Kallanai dam's size and dimensions cannot be compared to the Mullaperiyar, which is tens of times bigger. Now, taller and wider the reservoir and the dam, larger the potential energy of the water, and definitely, larger the extent of destruction. There there Ms Jayalalithaa, we have spotted your little delusion creative attempt.

But the Supreme Court has slapped the Kerala governments demands and approved the case in favour of Tamil Nadu. Isn't the Supreme Court of the world's largest democracy, the only body that is free of political intervention , or have we lost the boon of judicial review to regionalism sentiments too? Which body employed to study the situation of the dam do we believe? IIT sure seems bankable, but then why did the S.C not deliver a pro Kerala judgement, that would facilitate the construction of a spotless , safe new dam ? Afraid of building another water bomb and considering the woes of land acquisition in a state with a strong leftist presence like Kerala? Again, is a 999 year old judgement made by the British to be still considered as a benchmark for solving our inter state water crisis? Isn't there to be an agreement arrived on by the people of India? Lazy bunch of people supporting a bunch of repressive laws I tell you !
Propaganda sure leaves you in a cross road with questions all around you, especially if the propaganda is backed by facts. You just don't know which one to buy.
I am most definitely in a confused state.On a closing note, state sentiments apart, I frankly think, personally surveying the decayed ,leaked state of the dam, there is definitely an element of danger attached to it. The S.C judgement has dropped me the maze of confusion ,as I still doubt the bankability of the sources that the S.C. has used to conduct its studies.With the rise of the water level to 142 metres, only time can tell If it was all a part of the propaganda, or are we really living in the vicinity of a water bomb,which is quickly ticking away to dead hour.