'Management, not availability, of water a challenge'

Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat answers a range of questions on river water rows and politics in his home state Rajasthan in 15th edition of Delhi Dialogues

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SANTWANA BHATTACHARYA: Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat was a CM-probable when BJP won Rajasthan last year. The three-time MP from Jodhpur has perhaps one of the most challenging jobs of navigating interstate projects, some of them being long-lasting conflicts. He often has to make CMs engaged in "water wars" sit across the table, as big water projects go from the drawing board to the ground. Whether it is the Sutlej-Yamuna link between Punjab and Haryana, the Polavaram project in Andhra Pradesh, the Mekedatu and Upper Krishna project in Karnataka, and a host of others, his job has been to relate their feasibility to a genuine need for water on the ground. The Eastern Rajasthan Canal project, being upscaled to an interstate river-linking project, is an example of one of his recent focus areas in his home state. His training as a sportsman and national-level basketball player helps him dribble around, not allowing water disputes to become interstate wars.

We'd like to hear about all this and more what's the status of some of these projects?  Why does the Central approval take time?

The stated thrust of the Modi government's approach has been to get things going and done faster than they usually used to be done. While we'd ask a few questions on water, we would naturally want to know how well the BJP is "irrigating" its field for the coming Lok Sabha polls in his home state and elsewhere. Can the party repeat its 2019 performance

How does BJP balance its narrative of Ram and traditionalism with the construction of a postmodern society, with a GIFT city, for example, that can compete with Dubai? Is it like his (Shekhawat's) early image of being a farmer in jeans and a Swadeshi Jagran Manch activist? What does he think of the farmers' demand for a legal MSP guarantee? Is there not a simple way to tick many right boxes?