posting this on Goa net directly..thanx FLY ON THE WALL
Sujay Gupta Suggested headline: *Goa's green movement has shades of black* Every dream has a tinge of a nightmare. Every revolution , has a hero. And a villain. And every movement has a body of truth. And a body of greed and misuse. As proud believers and supporters of every genuine peoples movement in Goa, it's a nightmare to live through times, when a section of environmentalists, including some of the very heroes who continue to fight Goas wrongs, have taken upon themselves the role of downright but selective environmental bullies. Selective, because the target's carefully orchestrated, are people, companies and corporations, in the garb of an euphemism called the "mining lobby". Last week, a serious issue of the havoc caused by illegal mining companies and an urgent need to address it was hijacked, trivialized and crushed by charges of a mining lobby nexus with Manohar Parrikar and with Digambar Kamat, and the alleged role of yours truly of deftly managing to make the Leader of the opposition and the Chief Minister to make statements such as the presence of naxalite activity in mining areas, to suit one of the biggest mining companies in Goa. I humbly state, that I have, at least not yet, acquired those skills and even If I do, they will be used to rid Goa of some of environment destroying illegal mining companies as well as fake and compromised environmentalists. What followed was an orchestrated exercise by a lobby of activists and their sympathisers to hold court and pass verdict on every single issue such as my credibility, my act of compromising with miners, and how I have suddenly turned traitor to the cause, simply because I chose not to blur the lines between irresponsible activism and journalism. I am forced to start on a narrow myopic platform, because that is the gutter level to which environmentalists like Claude Alvares and bloggers who are afraid to bark with their signature and do so in the dark, namelessly and shamelessly calling themselves Pen-Pricks; have sunk to. (*I just wish they had not insulted the pen because that is a sacred tool with which writers and thinkers work and pen pricks is a very poor pretender and a false claimant to that tag*). I will first handle individuals and their roles in this story before addressing key and serious issues at hand. At the root of this recent upsurge against mining companies, actually a few and specifically one, is a series of skirmishes and battles Claude Alvares has fought and lost against the mining company and other companies managed and run by it. The two agitations at Advalpal and Colomb are areas where this company has mines operating. In Colomb where the entire focus on how this mining company had not acquired forest and environment permissions and therefore should be stopped, there is a specific court ruling declaring that the activities are legal. The court has even ordered a specific injunctions preventing militant activists from entering the mines and creating disturbances. Now gentlemen and lady crusaders, irrespective of which side you are on, a court ruling needs to be respected, if for nothing else than the fact that Claude Alvares dwells, dabbles and professes legalities. So if you respect the law, please do so even when the law finds you on the wrong side. Yes, there are illegal mines operating in Advalpal, where permissions have not been acquired, yes there are fly by night operators who even attempt to mine in 25 x25 square feet of land and make a fast buck, and yes forests have been cut and hills raped, by people who have not even sought permission. There is a need to agitate, protest and initiate coercive action against those individuals and companies. But if that is a genuine motive, why is that motive getting coloured by a selective attack on one or select mine owners whose pictures are painted black and they are selected in every speech and village corner meeting for special verbal attack. And the irony is, that such genuine mining companies have mined, created jobs, changed lives and bettered livelihoods for decades, in an industry which by its very nature takes a lot away from the land and involves in a fair amount of environment depletion. This leads to serious doubts that need to be answered. Doubts whether a certain environmental lobby targets people and companies they cannot do deals with and spares those with whom they do. It all looks very pretty to some when a motley group of crusaders storm offices and mines, call for bandhs and block roads. Genuine tools of people protest. But I need to draw the attention of a wider group of people like the readers of the Herald, of some of the activities of some of these protesters. And I leave it to you to draw your own conclusions. There is a certain individual who is seen with the new crusaders led by Claude Alvares and has in its ranks Sebi Rodrigues and others, including a sensitive and good human being Minguel Braganza, in whose eyes, I have lately fallen. This fellow's name is Shyam Sundar Naik . Naik led the protests against mining operations of a company in Advalpal. The same Shyam Sundar Naik, accepted a compensation cheque from the same company of Rs 48000 in 2006. In addition, he demanded money from the company for his local cultural organization *Varchawada Kala and Sanskruti Kruti Samiti * and accepted a cheque (no 597271) drawn on Canara Bank Margao dated 22.12.2006, of Rs 11,44,000 from the company. Will Shyam Sundar Naik or his activist masters care to explain how this money meant for cultural activities was used? For long companies have been repeatedly pressurized and bullied to pay up to buy peace. You call this activism? And by the way, the same Shyam Sundar Naik has trucks operating in the very same mines, even till this day. This is a classic case of double facedness where you are contracted to a mining company and get donations for your cultural organization, and at the same time, mobilize, and to my knowledge, even in a subtle fashion threaten people to agitate against the same company. But if a mature debate, of which there appears to be no sign, is to be held, the issues here are simply this. Mining companies should be prevented from mining illegally and there should be a serious citizens watchdog to ensure this. Secondly, mining companies should replenish what they take from the earth in the best manner possible. And this needs to be monitored. Any such failure should lead an immediate cancelling of leases and non renewal of future leases. And thirdly, companies should be personally responsible, in the event of very little governmental intervention, to ensure that pollution and it's after effects on health of local residents are controlled vociferously. A list of such companies should be prepared by watchdogs, proof gathered and cases filed. If the ground work of the watch dogs is genuine, let courts declare stringent punishment and ultimate closure of mines. That is what a genuine agitation and a people's movement is all about. However, if the end result of agitations isn't a closure of the problem through genuine solutions, then activism borders on terrorism. What also needs to be addressed is, is all mining bad and should mining be banned completely, or is illegal mining bad and should be stopped. I, and many right thinking people, do not buy the farcical argument that all mining in Goa is illegal. If that was so, the law would have caught up with all of them. And if the law is weak, get the law makers to change the law and then get the courts to declare companies operations illegal. There is confusion even in the activists' ranks. Some call for a ban on mining, others call for nationalisation of mining. One of the finest movements in Goa's history, the agitation against the regional plan was focused on the illegal manner in which the Regional Plan was drawn. The agitation, without any hint of violence, forced the government to scrap the faulty plan and start the process of drawing up a new one, with peoples help. Then, the anti SEZ agitation has merit. One unheard of crusader procured documents to show how laws were bent and manipulated to benefit some companies and the protest against housing projects in villages, has serious and genuine argument. I, in my limited capacity, salute and support each of these movements and people like Oscar Rebello, Ritu Prasad, Dean D Cruz, Patricia Pinto and Franky Monteiro and so many others. But I shall not, even in the face of incessant personal and defamatory attack, support deal makers and bullies who espouse people's causes for their personal benefits. There is an old Chinese curse – "May you live through interesting times" We are living that curse. Let Goa be the judge of our heroes and our villains.
