The Supreme Court could not have been clearer in its latest statement on the Sardar Sarovar dam. Some of the court?s clarifications repeat, with good reason, its 2000 and 2005 judgments on the issue, and reiterate the terms of the Narmada Water Disputes Tribunal Award. The haze of unscrupulous and self-interested politicking, corruption and dithering that has formed around the issue had obscured the crux of the problem ? rehabilitation of the displaced. The court has now put the displaced back at the centre of things, threatening to stop construction if their rehabilitation is not carried out properly and in time. The court?s emphasis is clearly and firmly on this aspect. It would be a serious distortion of its position to say that the essence of the judgment has been to put the protesters in their place and allow the construction to go on. It would, therefore, be disingenuous of the Gujarat chief minister to swing his interpretation of the court?s judgment in order to endorse his own political interests.

The new element in the court?s firmness is its unequivocal reinstatement of the prime minister to a position of responsibility and accountability. It is Mr Manmohan Singh, and not the Supreme Court, who should be taking clear, firm and ethically reasonable decisions regarding the height of the dam. It is, again, Mr Singh, together with the Central and state governments, who must see that the displaced are rehabilitated in a proper and timely manner. It is the prime minister who must embody and implement the ?statesman-like approach?, which the court has advocated, in order to strike that difficult balance ?between rehabilitation and development?. Mr Singh?s clarity on this matter will have to rise above the political stakes of the Congress. If three of his own ministers had been sent to Madhya Pradesh by him to assess the extent of rehabilitation, and if they had come back to report inaction, corruption and callousness on an inhuman scale, then it ought to be the prime minister ? and not the Supreme Court ? who must decide and act on that report. This should have little to do with the Congress in Delhi or the Bharatiya Janata Party in Gujarat. The Supreme Court and the NWDT Award have laid down the principles of social justice to which the prime minister must be accountable.