Politicians are once again playing with the lives and livelihood of the poor tribal population of the country to sub-serve their own petty political ends at the cost of development. All over the world, most mineral deposits - be they coal, iron ore, lime stone, bauxite, chromites, copper, zinc, uranium, zircon, gold or diamond - are found in often remote or less accessible places, which are generally inhabited by local tribes or their likes and aborigines. While exploitation of such resources invariably leads to dislocation of original settlers, in the end the latter are the single largest beneficiary of the development as it is witnessed in mineral rich Australia, Zambia, South Africa, Ghana, South Korea, Malaysia, Brazil, Chile and, more recently, China, the world's largest coal miner. Proper rehabilitation and job creation for the people affected by mining operations should be the primary goal of any such economic and industrial activity in any part of the world, including India, which is endowed with a lot of mineral wealth, much of it remaining unexplored and unexploited.

The question is: should India leave billions of dollars worth national mineral assets buried under its earth to “protect” the right of its poor politically misguided tribal population to live forever in despicable conditions, without food, shelter, sanitation, healthcare, education and employment, by encouraging them to hold on to their unproductive land of birth? Or, allow the scientific and methodical exploitation of those mineral resources for their wellbeing and, also, for the benefit to the nation? Environment laws or tribal land protection acts are not meant to dump development. The laws are there to strike a balance between the development needs and the social and ecological concerns of those directly affected. Jungle laws have no place in the modern society. This applies to both tribesmen and businessmen. Politicians, championing the cause of such laws, also have no place in the society. What is going on in Orissa's mineral rich tribal regions in the last seven years or so is nothing but the return of the jungle laws in the garb of a host of central and state acts through their convenient misinterpretation, misrepresentation and misguidance by vested political interests. Clearly, opposition-ruled Orissa is at the receiving end at the hands of the champions of the sectarian politics at the Centre. Vedanta Resources, the business conduct of which has never been quite above board, are only playing the pawns.

The national government or those political leaders who propped up governments in states and the centre did not blink once even to kill or get killed genuine tribal leaders in the mineral rich hills of Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Bastar, Orissa and Andhra Pradesh over the decades. Tribal uprisings seeking social justice for tribesmen and their families were often branded as Maoist or Naxalite movements. Their leaders are often hunted and jailed or even killed by the police to protect vested interests such as politicians, contractors and businessmen. Even the likes of the late A K Roy of Dhanbad, the firebrand champion of the Jharkhand movement, or Bastar fugitive, the slained Shankar Guha Neogi, were not spared. Neogi was shot dead at the behest of certain businessmen linked with iron ore mining at Bastar. Yet, thanks to such movements, tribal communities, who lost land to industrial promoters such as Tata Steel, Steel Authority (SAIL), Coal India, National Aluminum (NALCO), Hindustan Aluminum (HINDALCO), National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC), Orissa Mining Corporation (OMC) and Sponge Iron India, have been able to extract their due share of development from these private and public sector corporations. Few will agree that tribal land acquisition by these well-know business corporations complied with all environment laws and tribal welfare acts and was completed without hassle and local tensions. Yet, if those land acquisition deals ultimately sailed through without prolonged strikes and bloodshed, it was because they had the support and blessings of the respective state governments and the Centre, which were ruled by the same political party.

Unfortunately, the times have changed. Mineral rich Orissa has become a victim of vote-bank politics between the Congress party, which has been long out of power in the eastern state and the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD), led by chief minister Naveen Patnaik. And, in return, the worst affected are the people of Orissa, including its poor and jobless tribal population, and the state's economic development. Ferrous and non-ferrous metal projects worth over Rs. 1,50,000 crore by entrepreneurs such as Pohong Steel (POSCO) of South Korea , Ispat International, Tata Steel and Vedanta are awaiting clearance of either the state or the central government, or both of them. They are caught in the crossfire between the Congress and BJD leadership. Certain rival big business houses are believed to have pitched in to add their ever corrupting financial fuel to the political flame for competition reason, which has turned the situation even nastier for investors in mining and metals in the region.

Although it may be a bit early to say if Vedanta will be forced to vacate Niyamgiri Hills and shut down its Lanjigarh smelter, minister Jairam Ramesh's rejection of its bauxite mining licence is seen as the first major setback for Anil Agarwal, whose manipulative skills are often compared with that of the legendary late Dhirubhai Ambani, both self-made billionaires with humble beginning. Behind the meteoric rise of both Ambani and Agarwal was the patronage of the government they were able to muster to advance their respective corporate goals and personal business milestones. The union government was so much obliged to serve the two business tsars that it handed over its entire controlling stake in Indian Petrochemicals (IPCL), the country's largest petrochemical corporation, to Ambani's Relience Industries, and those in Bharat Aluminium (Balco) to Agarwal's Sterlite Industries (renamed Vedanta) for small consideration. Who or what is behind Agarwal's sudden woes in Orissa has become a big industry gossip. Will his Vedanta be able to pull through is a million dollar question, especially after Rahul Gandhi's footprints on the red soil of Lanjigarh. Does Gandhi have any special development agenda under his belt to exploit the region's precious mineral reserves for the lasting economic benefit of the tribal communities from Koraput and Kalahandi, who have been the victim of political neglect and repression over the last six decades?

The government must stop different environmental yardsticks for development projects, one for the benefit of the rich and the other for the suppression of the poor. If the environment laws are unbendable for mineral mining in opposition-ruled Orissa, the same yardsticks should also apply to Congress-ruled Maharashtra, where an official committee recommendation is being trashed to clear the Navi Mumbai airport project on a reclaimed fallow land ignoring all ecological concerns. Does Rahul Gandhi plan to sink his knees into the swamps of Navi Mumbai, this time, to protest against the construction of the country's most expensive airport project to save the sea-bound rivers, the mangroves, the wild life and as well the lives of thousands of local fishermen, which the monstrous project threatens to disturb and erase? (IPA Service)