बेबाक · Editorial
ഗുവാഹത്തിയുടെ ടെർമിനൽ മുതൽ കാനകോണയുടെ പീഠഭൂമി വരെഃ ഇന്ത്യയും പ്രതിരോധശേഷി കെട്ടിപ്പടുക്കണം.
ലോകത്തിലെ ഏറ്റവും മനോഹരമായ വിമാനത്താവള ടെർമിനലുകൾ നിർമ്മിക്കാൻ ഇന്ത്യയ്ക്ക് കഴിയും, എന്നിട്ടും ഗ്രാമീണ പ്രായമായവരെയും ദുർബലമായ ആവാസവ്യവസ്ഥകളെയും കഠിനമായ കാലാവസ്ഥയ്ക്ക് വിധേയമാക്കുന്നു.
രണ്ട് വരവ്
സമീപകാല റിപ്പോർട്ടുകൾ ഒരു രാജ്യത്തിന്റെ രണ്ട് ചിത്രങ്ങൾ വാഗ്ദാനം ചെയ്തു. വടക്കുകിഴക്കൻ മേഖലയിൽ ഗുവാഹത്തി വിമാനത്താവളം പുതുതായി നിർമ്മിച്ചത്
Where ambition concentrates
The contrast is not hypocrisy; it is a question of where ambition concentrates. Public systems have shown they can deliver the visible and the photogenic: a terminal worthy of global lists, a multi-modal hub of rail, metro and pod taxi, a regional airport proposed for international routes. What they have not yet learned to build with equal urgency is the invisible — the resilience that carries an ageing villager through a harsher climate, or that guards an ecosystem whose quiet distress offers no ribbon to cut. Infrastructure announces itself; adaptation does not. A republic that measures itself only by what can be inaugurated will keep funding the first and forgetting the second, until the season it ignored arrives to collect the difference.
The case for building
Make first the strongest case for the cranes. For the Northeast, a terminal that draws its design from the region's own biodiversity is more than concrete; it is recognition, and the Tripura Chief Minister's proposal for new international flight destinations from Agartala's MBB Airport flows from the same legitimate hunger for connectivity. A multi-modal hub at Noida, knitting rail and metro to the runway, can reduce travel time and support livelihoods around it. That farmers of Gautam Buddh Nagar who gave land are invited to board the first flight is the right symbolism — provided the compensation and rehabilitation beneath it are fair. To dismiss all this as spectacle would be its own dishonesty; for the citizen, a working airport is access, not vanity.
The evidence omitted
Now weigh the evidence the brochures omit. HelpAge India's study, covering 2,224 elderly persons across ten States, found the country's rural ageing population thoroughly vulnerable to climate change, with disadvantaged senior citizens facing even higher risks and challenges. In the same monsoon, rain disrupted life across Kurnool and Nandyal, where officials said Kosigi mandal recorded 100.60 mm of rainfall and Bethamcherla 77.20 mm. And on the Kulty Plateau, the silence of the bullfrogs after the ponds filled is precisely the kind of early ecological signal that never trends, yet warns that a system may be under stress. None of this will appear on any list of beautiful terminals. All of it describes the country in which those terminals stand, and the citizens who will live or suffer by how we plan.
Half a policy
Here is the considered verdict: the building is welcome, but ambition that protects the photogenic while leaving the vulnerable exposed is only half a policy. A state that receives land from farmers in Gautam Buddh Nagar owes them more than a ceremonial seat on the first flight — it owes transparent rehabilitation and a real stake in what rises on their land. And a country that can place a terminal on a global list plainly has the engineering, the capital and the coordination to better shield an elderly villager when the monsoon turns hostile, or to watch a plateau where a seasonal ecological signal has gone missing. These are not rival claims on the exchequer; they are the same claim — the dignity and safety of the citizen, photogenic or not.
Resilience as infrastructure
The way forward is to give resilience the standing we give runways. Let every marquee transport plan, from Noida to Agartala, carry in the same file a climate-adaptation and rehabilitation annexe — heat shelters, water security and health outreach for the rural elderly mapped from studies like HelpAge India's; fair compensation and last-mile public transport audited before the ribbon is cut. Let wetland and amphibian monitoring on plateaus such as Kulty be funded as ecological infrastructure, since such species can serve as early-warning signals. Let districts where rainfall has disrupted life, Kurnool and Nandyal among them, publish preparedness plans before the next severe spell, not relief lists after. The republic that can imagine a pod taxi can surely imagine an elderly citizen safer through the season. Build both, and only then call it arrival.
ലോകത്തിലെ ഏറ്റവും മനോഹരമായവയുടെ പട്ടികയിൽ ടെർമിനലുകൾ സ്ഥാപിക്കാൻ കഴിയുന്ന ഒരു റിപ്പബ്ലിക്കിന് അടുത്ത കാലവർഷത്തിന് മുമ്പ് അതിൻറെ പീഠഭൂമികളും അതിൻറെ പ്രായമായവയും സുരക്ഷിതമാക്കാൻ കഴിയും.
At stake is whether development protects life, environment, remedies and fair property treatment with equal seriousness.
Resilience Clearance for Major Infrastructure
Parliament should enact a narrowly tailored Resilience Clearance law for major public infrastructure, requiring every airport or transport hub approval to publish a climate-adaptation and ecological-risk plan, including safeguards for rural elderly citizens and local ecosystems, before final clearance. The law should mandate RTI-accessible disclosure of land compensation and rehabilitation compliance, a dedicated adaptation budget line, and a time-bound independent grievance route so affected citizens can seek correction without stopping lawful development by default.
നിങ്ങളുടെ ഭരണഘടനാപരമായ അവകാശങ്ങൾ
ഈ കഥയിൽ ഭരണഘടന എന്താണ് ഉറപ്പ് നൽകുന്നത്?The State shall endeavour to protect and improve the environment and safeguard forests and wildlife.
Directive PrincipleNo person shall be deprived of life or personal liberty except by a fair, just and reasonable procedure established by law — read by the courts to include dignity, privacy, health, a clean environment and livelihood.
Fundamental RightThe right to move the Supreme Court directly to enforce fundamental rights — called by Dr Ambedkar "the heart and soul of the Constitution." The courts can issue writs such as habeas corpus and mandamus.
Fundamental RightNo person shall be deprived of property save by authority of law — a constitutional (legal) right, requiring fair procedure and, in practice, compensation.
ConstitutionalWhat this editorial rests on
Drawn from our live multi-newsroom feed — read the reporting at source.
പ്രസ്ഥാനത്തിൽ ചേരുക.
ഒരു സമയത്ത് നിർഭയമായ ഒരു എഡിറ്റോറിയൽ-നിങ്ങളുടെ ഭാഷയിൽ. കൂടാതെ പിന്തുടരേണ്ട ഭരണഘടനാപരമായ ആവശ്യവും.
An editorial is the considered opinion of The Mudda desk, argued from the sourced reporting above and written under our published persona, बेबाक. We name institutions and actors; we do not endorse or attack any political party. "The Mudda's Ask" is a citizen's good-faith policy proposal, grounded in the Constitution — not the platform of any party. Translations are faithful — no fact is added in any language. If we are wrong, we will say so. How we work →