The Himachal voter who led a fight against big dams in Kinnaur
Sunder Negi and his peers realised that the only way to protect the environment around them was to participate directly in politics.
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What do young Indians who voted for the first time in 2014 think about the past decade? Scroll reporters find out in The Modi Generation.
Sunder Negi, who was a first-time voter in the 2014 general elections, cannot recall whom he voted for then. Nor does he remember the poll promises that candidates had made.
“MPs barely campaign in Kinnaur before elections to raise issues particular to the district or the tribals,” Negi said. “So, promises made during the 2014 general elections for Himachal don’t penetrate all the way here. This is probably why I don’t remember it!”
Negi has, however, closely watched changes in the region since 2014, when the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance came to power, under the leadership of Narendra Modi. Since then, he said, the government has promoted “unsustainable development” in the form of broader roads, particularly in border districts like Kinnaur, which shares an international border with China.
“The Centre sets these targets in Delhi, but we see the impacts of it in Kinnaur,” he said. “Opposition and local sentiments of people that we have communicated to the Center and prime minister have not been heard.”
Negi lives in Khadura, a village that falls under the Akpa panchayat, and is situated along the river Sutlej, about...
