Opinions and Editorials

Developmental Amnesia – By Abdul Khaliq (Jan 4, 2013, Tehelka)

He is an incorruptible leader with incredible energy and endurance; a man of steel who refuses to compromise on any issue; a visionary who has brought about all-round industrial development; a mesmeric orator who can arouse the emotions of the crowd and who works on the psychology that the masses prefer to submit to the strong rather than the weakling; a man of mystery steadfastly refusing to divulge anything of his personal life. For each success of the State, he modestly accepts all the credit. Sounds familiar? Before you jump to any hasty conclusion, let me clarify that the superhuman described above is none other than the doctored persona of Adolf Hitler, spun out by the Nazi propaganda machine. However, one cannot ignore the eerie resemblance with the carefully advertised image of the CEO of Gujarat. This sketch of Hitler was gleaned from the Nizkor Project website, dedicated to spreading awareness about the Holocaust and to combat Holocaust denial by hate groups. It is yet another testament to the resolve to never forget the Holocaust nightmare so that such an abomination does not recur.

The world has witnessed varying responses to mass murder and genocide. The Nurembergtrials investigated crimes of the military, political and economic leadership of Nazi Germany and delivered the most severe penalties against those responsible for genocide. In stark contrast, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa was a restorative justice body that stressed on reconciliation and granted amnesty to many of the perpetrators of the horrors of Apartheid. However, the underlying philosophy for setting up these bodies was essentially the same – to acknowledge that what happened was horrendous and that such horrors should never be repeated. In the words of Desmond Tutu, chairman of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, “We needed to look the beast in the eye, so that the past wouldn’t hold us hostage anymore.” But we in the country are working feverishly to forget the Gujarat holocaust of 2002 and ‘move on’, as though what happened then was a minor blip in our history. Through an astounding metamorphosis of thought, large sections of our society today genuflect before the leading figure who presided over the pogrom against an entire community. Writer and editor MJ Akbar recently lauded Modi’s decisive governance and incorruptibility. His adulation goes to the extent of giving Modi credit for the number of Muslim constables in Gujarat, although most of them were recruited before Modi came to power. He goes on to observe that Modi can aspire for prime ministership if he can convince Muslims that they will be safe under his watch. Even Syed Shahabuddin has extended the olive branch, albeit with a few caveats. The Modi cult grows apace and like the Emergency, his authoritarian style is seen as the panacea for the country’s ills. Clearly, in the present milieu, commerce has trumped justice. In the name of economic development and progress, we have decided to barter away the nation’s soul.

Apologists for the events of 2002 refer to what occurred inGujaratas a communal riot, thereby implying that both communities actively participated in the mayhem that followed the terrible Godhra train burning. But what happened in reality was a fascist massacre involving predators and victims. A Delhi-based columnist estimated, on the basis of FIRs and police surmise, that about 2 million people, or about 4 percent of the population ofGujarat, had participated in the ‘religious riots’. In a disturbing statement on record, Modi compared that nightmarish period to Gandhi’s Dandi March. Can thinking get more depraved than this? Now, instead of the possibility of people’s revulsion and resolution to stave off such evil, we witness the conductor of the pogrom not only entrenched as the arbiter of Gujarat’s destiny but a serious contender for the country’s top job. The dark underbelly of unpunished crimes, of distrust, of hate, still hangs like an ominous cloud overGujarat, but Modi’s spin doctors have deflected attention from the issues of justice through unremitting propaganda on development, Sadhbhawana yatras and counterfeit claims regarding peaceful coexistence and brotherhood. Disinformation, half-truths and doublespeak dominate the public space in Gujarat today.

The most mythical of all the claims regarding Modi is that he is a changed person today. His interview to Shahid Siddiqui shows him to be a misunderstood statesman with impeccable credentials carrying the good of the country in his heart. Shahabuddin has observed that Muslims see a change in his attitude. But this is nothing but a façade. It’s not a change of heart, but a change in tactics. Modi knows that the policy of polarisation of communities, which is so successful in Gujarat, will not work on the national stage; hence the Sadhbhawana yatras aimed at camouflaging his real persona – that of a ruthless, right-wing pracharak. Despite the posturing, glimpses of the hard-line Hindutva apostle occasionally peep through. Recently, he gratuitously referred to Ahmed Patel as “Ahmed miyan” with the mischievous intent of emphasising his opponent’s Muslim background, which helps consolidate the Hindu vote in a deeply polarised society. Had the Mahatma been alive today, he might have gently reminded Modi that fraternity and brotherhood, like non-violence “is not a garment to be put on and off at will. Its seat is in the heart and it must be an inseparable part of our being.”

Amidst all the bluster regarding development and effective governance, the social divide is deeper than ever. Gujaratcontinues to live in a chamber of horrors, unable to exorcise the ghosts of 2002. There is now no violence but the overpowering atmosphere of distrust and hate is there for all to see. More than ever before, the Muslim is viewed as ‘the other’. With housing apartheid blatantly practised, the Muslims are corralled together in ghettoes. As Romila Thapar perspicaciously noted, “Ghettoes are not only easy to control but easy to destroy”. Clarence Darrow, the humanist who fought relentlessly for the rights of the African-Americans, had observed that no matter what laws we pass, unless people are kind and decent and humane to one another, there can be no peaceful existence or liberty. In the ultimate analysis, “peace and freedom come from human beings rather than from laws and institutions.” Sadly,Gujarattoday has little of brotherhood or the ‘Indian spirit’. In this difficult period of universal deceit, we need to heed Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s dire warning: “When we neither punish nor reproach evil doers… we are ripping the foundations of justice from beneath new generations.”

http://tehelka.com/developmental-amnesia/

SEE ALSO: 

• Not Modi, Central grants helped Gujarat develop – Tejashree Patel with Premal Balan (Dec 23, 2012, Business Standard)
  http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/not-modi-central-grants-helped-gujarat-develop-tejashree-patel/496475/

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Rape In India : Legitimate Concerns And The Outrage Industry – By Karthik Ramanathan (Dec 30, 2012, Countercurrents)

The high degree of sex crimes in India does indeed raise concerns about safety particularly for women. The recent report of assaults against a woman and her male friend in South Delhi is another ghastly such event that requires attention, specifically due process, painstaking police and investigative work keeping in mind India’s constitutional principles that are also well established internationally.

While noting (as observed by many commentaries online and in print) the protests were only triggered because this event happened in an elite part of the National Capital, one observes that Manipuri and Kashmiri women who have faced abuse by security forces, or the plight of adivasi and dalit women, or cases of regular domestic abuse does not spark such universal outrage. This does not in any way minimize the crime that has been reported in South Delhi . The assailants should certainly be punished after a fair and just trial that establishes their guilt beyond reasonable doubt. One also can see the genuine concern in the eyes of protesters including many Indian women, each of whom would sure have their own stories of struggle against a sexist system to share. Nevertheless, a critical examination of the nature of the protests and consequent demands that have emerged can only ensure a positive and humane contribution to this debate.

If one were following the protests and the coverage in the media, there was legitimate condemnation of the crime against the woman, but no banner or report one could find taking a concerned view about all the affected people, which in this case is the woman and her male friend. It’s true that the woman has now lost her life after a battle of about two weeks. But her death cannot be the cause of this disparity as the protests far preceded the end of her life. This is quite a unique and baffling experience. In the US, where I live, there was recently a terrible crime too. Twenty young children at Sandy Hook Elementary School of Newtown, Connecticut state were murdered by a gunman along with six teachers, many reportedly trying to protect the children. Two more adults were wounded. A shocked America remembers the children and the adult victims as all of them were people who were victims of a terrible crime. When the Mumbai attacks happened, we did remember the people of India who were killed in the attack, but we for sure also remember and reported the stories of the foreign visitors who lost their lives.

But why do the protesters and the media coverage constantly give the impression that while demanding action on behalf of the rape victim, they seem to be forgetting that the woman’s boy friend was also severely injured almost to the point of fatality? Even as reports came in middle of December of the two injured individuals to be followed by protests, one could strain to find a banner that indicated that there were two humans injured, or a report that raised concerns about the condition and future of both the persons. As a man, I wonder if it’s just possible that society brutalizes men in ways that makes them forget their own humanity. Could that also be a factor that is contributing to many men forgetting love and embracing crime?

Of course, one is glad that there are exceptions. One of them is the opinion piece by Urvashi Butalia’s in The Hindu (Lets ask about how we contribute to rape, December 25, 2012) where she calls us to raise our voices for all women, but to also understand that this is part of a larger struggle for humanity and to not forget “that the young rape survivor in Delhi was accompanied by a friend who too was subjected to violence and nearly killed”. A very worthwhile suggestion that I’m sure even the now deceased woman would have appreciated. …

http://www.countercurrents.org/ramanathan301212.htm

SEE ALSO: 

• Preventing crimes against women: are stringent laws the only solution? – By Ram Puniyani (Jan 2, 2013, Twocircles.net)
  http://twocircles.net/2013jan02/preventing_crimes_against_women_are_stringent_laws_only_solution.html
• No Shortcuts on Rape – By Flavia Agnes (Jan 12, 2013, Economic & Political Weekly)
  http://www.epw.in/commentary/no-shortcuts-rape.html
• Women’s security: Time to establish accountability – By B.R.P.Bhaskar (Dec 31, 2012, Countercurrents)
  http://www.deccanherald.com/content/302015/womens-security-time-establish-accountability.html
• Protesting Rape – Editorial (Jan 12, 2013, Economic & Political Weekly)
  http://www.epw.in/editorials/protesting-rape.html

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Curious Ways of Indian Democracy from India Gate to the Slum Habitat – By Prachee Sinha (Jan 3, 2013, Countercurrents)

It has taken a horrific tragedy and a precious young life to stir the conscience of a nation. Or so one would like to believe! Reality may not still cater to our wishes. Our grand old civilization is also a culture of billion brutalities on its women and countless other victims. One can only hope that it changes for the better, even if a little, after what it has witnessed through the last fifteen days of the last year. Greater probability, however, is for such hopes to be belied yet again. It may take a lot more to lift the weight of an age-old way of life . After all, one would not have expected that rapes and molestations would be reported from across the country, and even from Delhi itself, right in the middle of anger, sorrow and protests that seemed to engulf the country. One would expect that the rapists and the criminals would lie low for a while till the situation returns to normal . Least of all wouldhave one expected that women would be harassed, and one or two would even be molested, during those very protests that were taking placeat the India Gate and Jantar Mantar.

The battered body of the nameless and faceless brave hearthas now been consigned to flames and returned to earth. From the little that we know about her ordeal in the bus, she fought the goons, without any fear that it could invite the brutalisation she was subjected to, when they first attacked her friend. She remained undefeated in her spirits even as her organs failed. Likes of the person, who reportedly expressed the opinion that she should have submitted to rape to be spared the brutalisation, shall never understand the meaning and the value of courage and dignity. As we move out of the period of mourning, as the protests subside, and as the seemingly outraged nation returns to business as usual, there is a lot to ponder and analyse. In a state of shock and grief in the immediate aftermath of the incident, I wrote an emotional piece on the social media casting an anguished and tearful glance from the vantage point of a young woman who commutes to work across Delhi spending two hours in public transport each way. When a friend of mine reacted by saying that we must get to the roots of structural violence permeating the urban habitat and see the role of capital in fomenting frustration and animosity that the underprivileged feel against the privileged and prosperous, I nearly pounced on him across the virtual space. To understand the root cause is not always a prerequisite for change, I wrote back to him. The need for change generates its own dynamics. Societies do not change easily, but they do change through such episodes, tragic as it might be that the girl is to be sacrificed for such incremental change. In the immediate aftermath of such an incident we should not demand a comprehensive treatment and a finely balanced approach. Let us not theorise in a manner that helps us forget and move on, I admonished him.

But, there is a time to mourn and protest, and there is a time to ponder and analyse. My friend was not as wrong as I made him out to be at the time. It is, perhaps, an integral part of thelong drawn out change process that the tragedy has generated a good deal of analysis and soul-searching. The government has been taken to task for its omissions and commissions; the nature of the state has been scrutinised for locating the source of insecurity women face day in and day out. More importantly, a culture and a society soaked with misogyny and patriarchy have been brought under the lens. Analysts and commentators have also wondered why certain cases of rape make headlines while others are lost in the small corners of inside pages. Why rapes and other forms of humiliation and oppression faced frequently by Dalit and tribal women do not stir the conscience of the nation. All such concerns are rooted in difficult issues of Indian society and polity and deserve serious attention. There are yet other issues which are difficult even to voice. Among other things, political correctness comes in the way. The main accused of this case, for example, is reportedly a resident of the Ravi Das slum cluster in south Delhi. I wonder how many from the sprawling Delhi slum habitat that shelters millions joined the protests at the India Gate. I also wonder if the vociferous demands for death penalty, mob lynching and worse by a large section of the protestors had subterranean linkages with the knowledge that the perpetrators of the crime belong to the slum habitat and came from the subaltern classes. While the awakening of the students and the educated youth has been rightly applauded, one has to ponder over the class dimension of the phenomenon and about the chasm that lies between India Gate and the slum habitat.

I am not suggesting that Delhi slums were devoid of the revulsion and sympathy witnessed elsewhere in the aftermath of this horrific incident. In fact I had numerous experiences that spoke otherwise. To take one, Metro stations around India Gate were closed down after the Saturday protests and I had to take an auto-rickshaw to reach there the Sunday after. The rickshaw driver who was a slum dweller and hailed from Bihar was refusing to take money once he came to know that I had come to join the protest. “You are doing a very good thing; I will not take money from you”. I had to really insist and express my appreciation for his concern before he yielded. But, there were indications that pointed in other directions too.

My parents happened to take a long bus ride the next day from Connaught Place to Rohini along the Route 990. Perched on the high front seats reserved for senior citizens they could afford a close observation of the bus driver who was in his thirties and appeared excessively angry and foul-mouthed. But the interesting part was his discriminating behaviour. While he did not stop the bus at many of the required stops where he saw students in suit and tie or regular middle class men and women, he stopped the bus between the stops to pick up passengers who appeared to belong to subaltern classes. He made sure that an elderly woman almost in rags got a seat, whereas he growled at every question asked by any educated looking person. It usually happens the other way round. The poor are at the receiving end of the bus drivers’ ire just as everywhere else. Most interestingly, he admonished a jeans clad young woman for talking over her cell phone while boarding the bus and mocked her by saying, “this bus is not going to the India Gate.” This last instance gave some indications of the source of his anger. … Politicization of a partially awakened citizenry is the need of hour. However, any politics of the genuinely emancipatory kind will have to find a way to deal with the multiple malignancies of the actually existing Indian democracy.

http://www.countercurrents.org/psinha030113.htm

SEE ALSO: 

• On Impunity – By V Geetha (Jan 12, 2013, Economic & Political Weekly)
  http://www.epw.in/commentary/impunity.html
• Guarantee Greater Conviction Of Sex Offenders – By Jamia Teachers’ Solidarity Association (Jan 6, 2013, Countercurrents)
  http://www.countercurrents.org/jtsa060113.htm
• Our redemption as a people lies in smashing the hierarchy of sorrow – By Ajaz Ashraf (Dec 26, 2012, Tehelka)
  http://tehelka.com/our-redemption-as-a-people-lies-in-smashing-the-hierarchy-of-sorrow/
• The Rape In Delhi And The Neglect Of Public Transport – By Vidyadhar Date (Dec 19, 2012, Countercurrents)
  http://www.countercurrents.org/date191212.htm

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Cash Transfers: Govt Dips Hands into People’s Pockets – Editorial (Jan 6, 2013, Peoples Democracy)

With much fanfare, the central government kicked off its pet project of Direct Benefits Transfer scheme on the new year’s day. The earlier announcement made by the finance minister from the office of the Congress party at Delhi came in the line of fire of the Election Commission as the announcement came during the Gujarat assembly elections. Also, smarting under charges that this announcement initially called the Direct Cash Transfer scheme under the slogan “Aap ka paisa, aap ke haath” was appearing as a bribe to the people, keeping the 2014 general elections in mind, the government seems to have changed the title of the scheme. Even this high profile launch has scaled down from the initial 43 selected districts to 20 and will cover only a select 26 central schemes like widow pensions, educational scholarships for SC/ST, OBC, minorities etc, etc. Food, fertilisers and kerosene are being kept out of the coverage for the moment. The scheme is slated to be extended to cover all governmental subsidies gradually.

While we shall discuss the inherent weaknesses and limitations and its inability to reach out to the needy later, it should be underlined that the legality of this scheme is yet to be procured through a law enacted by parliament. The legislation “The National Identification Authority of India Bill 2010,” whose objective is stated “to provide for the establishment of the National Identification Authority of India for the purpose of issuing identification numbers to individuals residing in India and to certain other classes of individuals and manner of authentication of such individuals to facilitate access to benefits and services to such individuals to which they are entitled and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto” is pending before the parliament. This bill was introduced in the Rajya Sabha on December 3, 2010 and referred to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance for its examination. This Standing Committee presented its report to both the houses of parliament on December 13, 2011.

The Parliamentary Standing Committee concluded its examination by stating, “In view of the afore-mentioned concerns and apprehensions about the UID scheme, particularly considering the contradictions and ambiguities within the government on its implementation as well as implications, the committee categorically convey their unacceptability of the National Identification Authority of India Bill 2010 in its present form. The data already collected by the UIDAI may be transferred to the National Population Register (NPR), if the government so chooses. The committee would, thus, urge the government to reconsider and review the UID scheme as also the proposals contained in the bill in all its ramifications and bring forth a fresh legislation before parliament.”

The government has not so far given its opinion on the Standing Committee’s report and has not either abandoned this bill with the a to bringing about a fresh bill or has not come with an amended bill before the parliament. The current launch of the scheme is based on the clearance of the Ministry of Law and Justice for issuing Aadhaar numbers, pending passage of the bill by parliament on the ground that powers of the executive are co-extensive with the legislative power of the government and that the government is not debarred from exercising its executive power in areas which are not regulated by legislation. The Parliamentary Standing Committee completely disagrees with such an understanding and states, “The committee are constrained to point out that in the instant case, since the law making is underway with the bill being pending, any executive action is as unethical and violative of parliament’s prerogatives as promulgation of an ordinance while one of the houses of parliament being in session.”

Apart from this issue of legality, the inherent weaknesses of such a system in India have been widely discussed. The 4G Identity Solutions contracted by the UIDAI for supply of biometric devises notes that, “It is estimated that approximately five per cent of any population has unreadable fingerprints either due to scars or ageing or illegible prints.” Our experiences with the MGNREGA has already shown that the reliability and success rate of fingerprint recognition, particularly for those doing manual work, is very low. Secondly, the system is based on reliable computer connectivity nationwide. India has not yet arrived at this stage. In an August 2012 speech, even the RBI governor D Subbarao referred to the Aadhaar-based biometric authentication in online transactions and noted that “the robustness of this technology is as yet unproven.” …

http://pd.cpim.org/2013/0106_pd/01062013_1.html

SEE ALSO: 

• Cash Transfers and UID – By M S Swaminathan, Bezwada Wilson and others (Jan 5, 2013, Economic & Political Weekly)
  http://www.epw.in/letters/cash-transfers-and-uid.html

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Endgame in Telangana – Editorial (Dec 29, 2012, The Hindu)

Statehood for Telangana is too contentious an issue to yield to random consensus-building exercises. Major political parties and large sections of the people of Andhra Pradesh are divided on geographic lines on the question of bifurcation of the State, and any solution would have to involve climbdowns and compromises. In the absence of any structured dialogue engaging the various stakeholders, all-party meetings called by the Centre have resulted only in the reiteration of known positions. After another all-party meeting on Friday, Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde did not do much more than promise to take a decision on Telangana within a month. But importantly, he indicated that there would not be another all-party meeting on this issue.

The time for negotiations and consensus-building is over; the stage is set for a solution imposed from above. By now, the Centre must have realised that buying time will not work even as a short-term tactic. With patience wearing thin among pro-Telangana protesters, some forward movement would have to be made within the next month if the statehood agitation is not to escalate further. But given that the Centre’s decision-making on the Telangana issue is almost entirely based on the political calculations of the Congress, nothing more than an in-principle acceptance of the statehood demand is likely in the near future.

Left to itself, the Congress would like to let matters drift till 2014 when elections to both the Lok Sabha and the State Assembly are due. Sure, there is no solution that would please everyone, but that is no reason to delay a decision on an issue over which a large number of people in the Telangana region have been organising protests and agitations affecting normal life. The Congress knows that a decision to carve out a separate Telangana would alienate many people in Coastal Andhra and other parts of Andhra Pradesh, and also that any further delay would fuel anger among those in the thick of the statehood campaign.

The tactic of holding out hope for a separate State without actually conceding it cannot yield political dividends any longer. Of course, the Congress is not the only party indulging in doublespeak over the issue. While the Telangana Rashtra Samiti, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Communist Party of India have been unequivocally pro-Telangana, and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul Muslimeen have been openly against the bifurcation, the Telugu Desam Party and the YSR Congress have been ambiguous on this issue. Politics is all about taking a stand and parties would do well to realise it is impossible to be all things to all people.

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/endgame-in-telangana/article4249636.ece

SEE ALSO: 

• Telangana: In a “state” of communal conflicts – By Mazher Hussain (Jan 3, 2013, Twocircles.net)
  http://twocircles.net/2013jan03/telangana_%E2%80%9Cstate%E2%80%9D_communal_conflicts.html

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A missing link in the mining scam? – By G Vishnu (Dec 22, 2012, Tehelka)

On 26 November, a CBI court rejected the bail plea of mining baron and former Karnataka minister Gali Janardhan Reddy for the sixth time since his arrest in September last year. Besides activists and some bureaucrats who painstakingly documented the Bellary mining scam, several mining companies that had suffered under the ‘Reddy Republic’ too were overjoyed by the news. Among them was the Reddys’ biggest rival company in Bellary – Mineral Sales Private Limited (MSPL) of the Baldota Group – that had been awarded the ‘President’s National Safety Award (Mines)’ just four days earlier. As the Bellary clean-up begins, it is important to examine this other company that ran the largest mining operation in Bellary until 2008, and after the Reddys’ ignominious exit, is once again the largest mining group in the ravaged region. Indeed, the Baldotas seem to be the future of Bellary. While NA Baldota heads the Group, his sons Rahul Baldota and Shrenikkumar Baldota are the executive directors of MSPL, its flagship company. Rahul is known as a maverick who had resisted the Reddys’ rampage in Bellary. In October 2010, Forbes magazine called Rahul “the last man standing” in the battle for Bellary against the Reddy Brothers.

However, many state government officials credit the Baldotas with setting the precedent for the infamous ‘Bellary way of mining’ that the Reddys later honed to ‘perfection’. In 2008, the then Karnataka Lokayukta Justice N Santosh Hegde had brought to light major violations and systematic corruption, including encroachment of forestland and underpayment of royalties to the government. Justice Hegde resigned from the Lokayukta’s post in June 2010 citing non-cooperation by the state government. In July 2011, another Lokayukta report detailed how miners, bureaucrats and ministers colluded to defraud the government of mining revenues, and uncovered the “zero risk system” – a protection-and- extortion racket allegedly run by the Reddys. The Rs 15,000 crore scam was not just about the government losing revenue, but also involved serious environmental damage. Every official TEHELKA spoke to agreed that no mining company in Bellary was completely clean – a fact that even Rahul Baldota concedes. Today, MSPL sits on a piece of controversial forestland that could earn the Baldotas Rs 20,000 crore in profits.

Set up in 1961 by a Marwari businessman from Mumbai, Abheraj H Baldota, today MSPL is one of India’s leading miners of iron ore. Besides iron ore, the Baldota Group has interests in shipping, steel, chemicals, wind energy, and diamond and gold mining. On their website, the Group claims to be “one of India’s leading exporters of high-grade processed iron ore to China”. “They were there much before the Reddys arrived, but nobody noticed their illegalities as they had ‘managed’ most of the politicians in Karnataka,” says a local anti-mining activist. This view is also shared by officials in the state’s department of mines and geology as well as the Lokayukta’s office. In fact, one official recalled that one of the survey stones of the Vyasanakere iron ore mine – MSPL’s largest and oldest area of operation – was bizarrely inside the Tungabhadra dam’s reservoir, and so the Lokayukta team had to wait for six months for the water to recede, to see the actual size of the mine. “We could see many violations like this, but frustratingly, there were no records,” the official says. Rahul Baldota shrugged off this allegation, saying the investigating officials did not get the technical issues right.

One of the biggest violations was noted in March 2010 by Karnataka’s Chief Conservator of Forests in a letter to the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF): encroachment on 200 acres of reserve forestland in Kallahalli, bordering the Vyasanakere mine. But Rahul Baldota rubbished this allegation too, claiming that some public officials had gone on a witchhunt against the Baldota Group at the behest of Janardhan Reddy or because of “ego-issues”. In another case that throws light on the ‘Bellary way of mining’, MSPL is today fighting to retain one of its largest mines – Ramgad Minerals and Mining Ltd (RMML) – spread across 331 hectares of forestland. The story of this mine begins with Dalmia Cement – another conglomerate with varied interests – that has been mining in Bellary for decades. In 1953, Dalmia Cement had obtained a 30-year lease to mine iron ore in the area. The process of renewal of the lease in the 1980s violated the Forest Conservation Act, 1980 (FCA). The state department of mines and geology and the department of commerce had facilitated the renewal without the prior approval of the Central government, which is mandatory as per the FCA rules.

Following the Supreme Court’s judgment in the Samata case, which prohibited mining on forestland until FCA clearance, Dalmia Cement stopped mining operations in 1997. Two years later, it surrendered the lease over 197 acres to the state government, and the rest of the mining area in 2001. Instead of notifying this area for grant of mining lease, as required under rule-59 of the Mineral Concession Rules, 1960, the SM Krishna government transferred the lease to the Baldota Group, by an order dated 16 March 2002, in contravention of the FCA and the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act. In effect, the Baldotas had been passed on a legally void mining lease. Though the lease itself was void, the MoEF granted “in-principle approval (stage- I)” for the diversion of 335.04 hectares of forestland to the Baldota Group on 13 September 2006, and a “final approval” on 9 September 2010, without obtaining the compliance report from the state’s forest department. Strangely, the BJP government in the state kept quiet on the matter until 2010, when it raised an objection over this improper approval. The then environment minister Jairam Ramesh wrote to the state government in March 2011 stating that one of the reasons for giving the approval was that RMMLwas being treated in a discriminatory manner by the state government. MSPL’s argument is that Dalmia Cement never actually completed the surrender process of the land under the mining lease, and this makes the transfer of the lease legitimate. Rahul Baldota told TEHELKA that MSPL strictly plays by the book and adheres to the law of the land. “We opposed the Reddys, though it could have been vastly profitable to go with them. Look at the work we do for the local communities and you will understand our style of functioning,” he says. This rhetoric notwithstanding, in October this year, the MoEF issued a showcause notice to MSPL asking it to explain why their lease should not be cancelled. This is what the mining companies in Bellary and the rest of India need to be told repeatedly. Obey the law or perish.

http://tehelka.com/a-missing-link-in-the-mining-scam/

SEE ALSO: 

• Give Us The Rope – By Sidharth Bhatia (Jan 14, 2013, Outlook)
  http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?283442

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