It is the bloodbath over the land dispute between Assam and Mizoram which makes one sit up and ponder as to how serious some of the problems are, opines Soroor Ahmed
Till recently land and water disputes involving two or more states of India were quite common phenomena. Now air too is fast becoming bone of contention among the landlocked Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. The post paddy harvesting stubble burning along with the festival of Diwali are making the overall environmental condition hellish in north-west India in the early winter every year. This is not to forget the role vehicular and industrial pollution play in aggravating the problem.
While various panels, Group of Ministers, tribunals, commissions and even the Supreme Court of India have failed to resolve land and water disputes, it is becoming increasingly difficult to amicably solve the battle over the quality of air. In this case even the Constitution and law of the land are silent as nobody had at the time of framing them imagined that air too can become an issue for the states to quarrel. It is not as easy to enact a law in this regard.
The problem with the land and water disputes is that the states which have more powerful lobby prevail over others. In the case of river water disputes the lower riparian states are often the sufferers.
Be it the Cauvery water issue involving Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu or distribution of water of river Sone among Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar and river Ganga among Uttarakhand, UP, Bihar and West Bengal or dispute over Sutlej-Yamuna Canal among Delhi, Haryana and Punjab, the story is somewhat identical.
Yet it is the bloodbath over the land dispute between Assam and Mizoram which makes one sit up and ponder as to how serious some of the problems are. Five Assam Police personnel and another person from the state were gunned down by the police of neighbouring Mizoram. Not only that, FIRs were lodged against the chief ministers and officials of both the states by the rival governments.
The irony is that while the Bharatiya Janata Party is in power both at the Centre and Assam, it is supporting the Mizo National Front in Mizoram. Yet the so-called decisive Narendra Modi government could not take any decision and even condole the deaths of policemen till hours after the killing.
There are several such claims and counter claims over patches of land among the states in the sensitive North-East. Most of the disputes have deep-rooted historical and geographical reasons. The partition of India and creation of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) further compounded the problem in the far-flung bordering region.
Yet these issues could not be solved among the states even 74 years after Independence. Now when apparently the NDA is directly or indirectly in power in almost all the states of the region, it was hoped that the issue would be settled. The Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma is the convenor of the North-East Democratic Alliance.
The truth is that boundary disputes among the states could not be solved even after the States Reorganization Commission (SRC) headed by Justice Fazal Ali submitted its report in 1955. Actually, the Commission was set up in 1953 after the first state on the linguistic basis, Andhra Pradesh, was carved out from the erstwhile Madras Presidency.
But the States Reorganisation Commission failed to address all the demands. While it recommended creation of 14 States and six Union Territories today India has 28 States and eight UTs. The north-east underwent a big change and several states came into existence.
Telangana became the 29th state on June 2, 2014, but on August 5, 2019 Jammu and Kashmir was bifurcated into two UTs.
Anyway the SRC failed to solve many contentious issues. For instance, the quarrel between former Mysore and now Karnataka, and Maharashtra over Belgaum which the latter still demands.
The demand of separate Punjabi Subah (state) led to the bifurcation of Indian Punjab and a new state of Haryana came into being in 1966. But here again dispute over Abohar and Fazilka continues to pester. While Haryana demands these two townships of Punjab the latter stakes claim over Chandigarh.
India is categorised as a Federal country with strong Centre. There are at least two types of Federation – Holding Together Federation and Coming Together Federation. While India can be put in the first category, the United States definitely falls in the second where different states came together at different points of time to become a nation. That is why every state has two Constitutions – one of its own and the other of the US. In the same way different states have different laws.
There are inter-state water disputes in the United States, which is a huge country. But they are resolved in a better way, though it is also a fact that in 1860s the States fought a bitter civil war. But that was not over land or water but over slave trade.
In spite of that, it was dispute over water that American writer Mark Twain reportedly said: “Whiskey is for drinking; water is for fighting over.” But the United States, which has much larger number of big rivers, has evolved a better mechanism.
Some experts hold the Supreme Court of India also responsible for the lingering land and water disputes between different states in India. While land disputes can be solved by adopting give and take policy and showing some generosity, the river water dispute is going to become more complicated due to climate change.
Due to rise in temperature there is excessive melting of glaciers as well as heavy rains that are making the task of river water distribution even more serious. At the same time, the construction of big dams as well as frequent droughts in other parts are also going to wreak havoc.
Besides, if nothing is done in the near future to check pre-winter long phase of smog, the tussle over air is going to pose an even bigger challenge.