All Gujaratis relish the sight of the overflowing Sardar Sarovar dam at Kevadia. Touted as the lifeline of Gujarat, for years, the project for years was synonymous with Gujarat’s pride and hopes. Opposition by the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) only served to rally public opinion. For all its emotive appeal, it could never became an election issue because no political party opposed the dam.But four decades after it was conceived and more than three years after the Supreme Court threw out a petition by the NBA, the ambitious project could reap a symbolic harvest for the Bharatiya Janata Party in the Lok Sabha elections. All this because the Congress has served the issue on a platter to the BJP which rode the crest of a Hindutva wave in the 2002 Assembly elections in Gujarat.The Election Commission order stopping chief minister Narendra Modi’s Narmada Pujan Yatra ahead of Kevadia has done little harm to the BJP which converted the opportunity to settle scores with the Congress and sucessfully equate it with the NBA.The BJP’s intention to make it a poll issue was obvious when Kapadvanj and Kheda—two of the five Lok Sabha seats held by the Congress in Gujarat—were included in the Narmada Pujan yatra’s route. Also, the dam finds a pride of place on the four chariots, the party will use for campaigning in Gujarat.The day the Narmada Control Authority gave a nod to raise the dam height to 110.64 m, Modi took a stand that the credit goes to all the previous chief ministers. Though only BJP chief ministers Keshubhai Patel and Suresh Mehta were present when the party held its first function to celebrate the event, Modi refrained from criticising the Congress. But he wasted no time in lambasting the Congress the moment the EC’s order halted his yatra at Dabhoi near Vadodara. ‘‘The project will be completed during BJP’s tenure and the yatra will be taken out after the elections,’’ he announced.Former Narmada Development Minister and one of the moving spirits of the project Jay Narayan Vyas equates the Congress’ decision to approach the EC as ‘‘a self-killing instinct.’’ He says,‘‘ They too should have taken out a yatra or two and taken part in celebrations, but by not doing that they have proved they believe in mass suicide.’’A Narmada expert on condition of anonymity says, ‘‘Now it’s an illusionary issue, it won’t bring any votes. As such the dam never had an all-Gujarat appeal. In parts of north Gujarat, Saurashtra and Kutch it may fetch few votes.’’ Vyas says the NCA nod followed because Congress ruled states Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh did their bit over the past few years. The party might have lost power in MP but it could have still exploited its record on rehabilitation in MP and Maharashtra in the coming elections, he adds. He, however, feels Narmada is still an emotional issue.Mehta, who will head BJP’s campaign in the coming elections, however, says the party will not make it a poll issue. ‘‘The dam height was raised after a long struggle, why did the Congress not celebrate it,’’ he asks. He claims the yatra was not taken out with an eye on elections and the BJP will not make the EC’s order a prestige issue.Political analyst Dinesh Shukla feels the BJP will try to exploit the issue but it may not bring many votes. ‘‘One party can’t take credit because it’s not one party’s or individual’s achievement. Intelligent voters will easily see through this,’’ he says. He has his own doubts whether the issue holds mass appeal. ‘‘They may use it as part of a feel good factor or a second green revolution. It used to be an emotional issue, but no more. In any case, no one is opposed to it in Gujarat.’’As if realising its folly, the Congress welcomed the EC’s order and says the party had always supported the BJP after it lost power in Gujarat. ‘‘We never tried to makea political capital out of it,’’ Congress Dahboi MLA Siddharth Patel says. The Congress vainly tried to criticise Modi for the language he used after the EC’s order as ‘‘not befitting Gujarat’s pride.’’
