Whenever I heard debates on India’s development, reference
to China’s pace of growth inevitably comes into discussion. “Look at China”, “where
China was in 1960’s and where it is now?”, “Why can’t we grow like that?” etc.
Then someone would reply, although incorrectly, “We don’t have the political
will”, “Democracy is stopping us from taking hard decisions” etc.
I am an admirer of China’s growth. It was indeed a success story
of 20th century. China rose from ashes after devastating World War
II, from crippling communist programs like ‘Great Leap Forward’ etc. China
under Deng accepted free market policy and showed miracle growth rates for more
than two decades. Now she reached a position where her voice is respectfully
heard in international forums.
The question is, do we have to follow Chinese model for
India’s growth? Many may tempted to say yes. However my answer is a firm no.
There are many things we can learn and absorb from China. However Chinese
growth is not a model that we can follow. Why? Even though there are many
reasons I will focus
only on one of them.
Growth without any concern for environment
In India many groups created an opinion that, focusing on
environment is affecting India’s growth rates. In short, if you want
development then don’t argue for rivers and forests. By extension of this
theory, whoever argues for environment is by default included in anti-development
group. These groups often sites China as a model.
How far we can accept this argument? Do you think
development is always against environment? Do you think, if we need development
then we need to cut virgin forests, divert rivers and flatten the hills? What
type of development is that? Can we call it as development or simply resource
extraction? I prefer the later one.
Honestly speaking, I don’t believe building a dam on every
hundred kilometers of Ganga on unstable Himalayan terrain is development; I don’t
believe cutting down even the last remaining evergreen forests in Western Ghats
is development; I also don’t believe open pit coal mining is a development. Can
anyone go to Chromium mining areas, say Sukinda, or open pit coal mining areas
and stay there for one week? Can they say those cities are developed ones?
Can you go to Yamuna in Delhi and take a bath? Can you go to
Ganga at Patna and drink the water?
The interesting thing is we are all forced to believe that
these are development. Will this development reduce our import cost for
electronics? How many manufacturing plants are there in India which can produce
microprocessors for computer? How many Silicon wafer manufacturing plants we
have? Why we got the notorious tag of biggest weapon importer country in the
world? Forget about fighter planes and high quality radar, can we even
manufacture high grade light machine gun?
In Foreign Affairs magazine Sulmaan Khan analyzes the cost
of Chinese development model – “Suicide By Draught” – Sulmaan Khan.
“The rivers flowing from the Third Pole -- among them, the
Mekong, the Yangtze, and the Yellow River -- traditionally satisfied the
majority of China’s water needs. But those waters, along with China’s other
supplies, have been steadily disappearing. Since the 1950s, 27,000 rivers have
vanished from China. China has only seven percent of the world’s freshwater to
meet the needs of about one-fifth of the world’s population. Of that water,
only 23 percent is located in northern China, which, as home to most of the
country's major industries, uses much more water than China’s south. Meanwhile,
much of the country's available water supply has been rendered unusable by
pollution.”
If we continue to destroy the environment in the name of pollution,
then some years later someone else will also write a report like that. Only
difference will be in the name. Instead of China it will be India.
Problem is we often don’t estimate the value of environment.
There is value for fresh air and clean water. These two we can’t simply
manufacture. Just ask someone working on Central government’s reverse osmosis
project in Chennai to know the cost of producing a litre drinkable water from
sea water. Ask someone who walks through Bangalore’s road to know how good the
air is.
Development is not cutting down the forest or diverting the
rivers. Just think about Singapore, a place less than NCT Delhi in size is
receiving more FDI in a year than entire India.
Before going ahead with grandiose plans give one minute for environment
as well. NTPC can build tens of super critical coal fired thermal power plants,
but without huge water supply it’s useless. In Madurai (Tamilnadu) there are a
lot of bridges to cross a river called Vaighai, but nor even a drop of water is
present under those bridges. Bangalore, in search of land, flattened many great
lakes and built majestic residential layouts and mega structures. However, now water
for those residential areas have to come from Cauvery River. Remember Cauvery
is a lifeline for many areas in the downstream. Moreover considering the
environmental degradation in her sources, how long she can support cities like
Bangalore in its downstream?
Before adding water to Gadgil’s report on Western Ghat and making
it Kasturi Rangan report, and then adding further water to it, think about the
human’s basic needs – clean water and fresh air. We need development, but stop
calling plans for building tens of mega dams in unstable Himalayan geographies
from Kashmir to Arunachal as development. Build gas fired power plants or new
generation nuclear power plants for generating electricity. Don’t call open pit
mining as development; if you need coal then go for underground mining. Build
more environment friendly railway lines than 8 lane roadways and running
thousands of Lorries through it.
China is an example of how not to run after development as
far as environmental impact is concerned. Learn from her mistakes, lean from
how China is planning to mitigate those risks. Don’t blindly follow her.
Sajeev.
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