The politicisation and rejection of a proposal of the London-based metals and mining conglomerate Vedanta Group (annual revenue: $7.6 billion or Rs.34,960 crore) to extract bauxite from Orissa’s Niyamgiri Hills, has dangerous implications for industrial development and foreign investment flows into the Indian economy. Politicians — including the Congress party’s over-hyped heir apparent — and the media have done the nation a great disservice by simplifying this proposal which could create thousands of jobs and catalyse economic development of the notoriously backward Kalahandi district (where thousands of people die of starvation every year) of Orissa (adult literacy: 49.1 percent; per capita income: Rs.16,149). By romantically and simplistically reducing this proposal to an Avatar-like stand-off between a greedy megacorp and indigenous tribals living happily around their “sacred mountain”, the media (and several simple-minded NGOs) have also done injustice to the Dongria Kondh tribals.
The rationale of the proposal to mine bauxite deposits of the Niyamgiri Hills is that currently the bauxite required by Vedanta’s Lanjigarh aluminium factory is bought from 14 different mines spread across Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Gujarat. On the other hand, the rich bauxite deposits of the Niyamgari Hills are a mere 3 km from the company’s Lanjigarh plant. Mining the contiguous hills for bauxite could transform Vedanta into the world’s cheapest producer of aluminium.
Contrary to popular belief and traditional grammar of NGOs, Vedanta Corp’s improved profitability will benefit the hitherto neglected people of Kalahandi because while clearing the company’s Niyamgiri Hills mining application after due consideration in 2008, the Supreme Court attached a condition directing the company to invest 5 percent of its global net profit on development activities within a 50-km radius of its Lanjigarh plant. This development opportunity presented to Orissa’s most backward district explains why the state government rolled out the red carpet for Vedanta.
But unfortunately for the tribals of Kalahandi, ten years ago they overwhelmingly elected the opposition BJP-allied Biju Janata Dal (BJD) to power in Bhubaneswar, the administrative capital of this eastern seaboard state (pop.36 million). This development evidently doesn’t suit the master plan of the Congress heir-apparent to emerge as the champion of tribals and minorities before the next general election due in 2014. Hence with the help of a suspect report of the N. C. Saxena committee which has found Vedanta guilty of violating forest laws and collusion by the state government, the proposal to mine bauxite from the Niyamgiri Hills has been rejected by the Union ministry of forests and environment.
To accept the superstitions and ignorance of illiterate tribals living in squalor and disease at face value and interpret them as the will of the people to surrender their rights to education, healthcare and other benefits of socio-economic develop-ment, is political cynicism of the worst type and unworthy of the Congress — India’s oldest political party (estb.1885). The territorial and property rights of the tribal people of Kalahandi need to be protected and leveraged to their advantage, not manipulated to perpetuate their poverty, ignorance and misery under cover of democracy.
Glaring tools usage culture lacuna
Although the citizenry in general seems oblivious of the phenomenon, to the discerning eye one of the most ubiquitous and glaring sights in urban habitats as well as in the rural countryside of contemporary India, is the pervasive lack of a tools utilisation culture. Despite massive and complex problems of governance, administration and maintenance of the country’s ill-planned, over-populated and collapsing cities, it’s common to witness civic workmen of municipal corporations and construction-site labour performing onerous tasks with minimal tools and instruments.
For instance, in the professedly hi-tech city of Bangalore, municipal workmen are routinely obliged to clear blocked sewage pipes with primitive bamboo poles, failing which patently under-nourished workmen bereft of protective clothing or equipment are pushed down open manholes to perform this degrading task manually. Likewise on urban construction sites and in road building and relief projects under MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act), workmen and women engaged in site work are — if at all — provided with the most rudimentary tools devised centuries ago.
The glaring lack of a tools utilisation culture in civic management and infrastructure building is telling proof of widespread contempt in government and Indian society for labour — a vital factor of production — and for organisational productivity. Indeed it’s shocking that Indian officialdom is so deeply ignorant about the critical importance of labour/organisational productivity for national development. Because ever since the world’s first tool — probably the lever — was invented, the distinguishing characteristic of great civilizations has been their ability to invent and use tools — the lever, wheel, cranes and computers — to reduce workers’ burden and boost workplace productivity. Indeed, the worldwide triumph and hegemony of the Western nations in the 19th and 20th centuries was the outcome of the industrial revolution which, through widespread harnessing of steam power and machines, dramatically improved labour and organisational productivity.
In retrospect, it’s painfully clear that the technology ignorance of Indian officialdom and society is rooted in the neglect of vocational education during the past 63 years since independence. Currently only 3 percent of youth aged between 15-25 countrywide have vocational education certification against 65 percent in the US and 75 percent in China. Quite clearly, unless the education system in all of India’s 28 states and five Union territories is recast to ensure that all children from class VIII upwards are simultaneously enroled in vocational programmes, the technology aversion and productivity of the Indian economy is unlikely to improve. Over two centuries ago the great philosopher-author Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) observed: “Man is a tool-using animal. Without tools he is nothing, with tools he is all.” Unfortunately our omniscient central planners and government officials seem unaware of this truism.