KASHIPUR TO KALINGA
2nd Jan 2006, India
saw bringing in the New Year by killings of tribal in Kalinganagar.
Will it turn Indian government to Buddhism like another brutalization
of Kalinga did to King Ashok, the ruler at that time? India is supposed to be democratic so it might
not have the same effect! 30th
January, Mahatma Gandhi's death anniversary has been chosen to protest
through out the nation against the mindless oppression of State. But
when media is forced to give attention worldwide on something it is
scary as it implies that in an effort to hide something, another is
stressed, especially when religion or ethnicity is mixed in it. Be it
demolition of Babri masjid or the Gujarat
massacre both happening just before release of national budgets! It is
sinister the way the minds of rulers and their coterie works and to
understand that common people are forced to think in a similar
manipulative manner. But we the people of India
are constructed to be law abiding, peaceful and spiritual so that the
looters and exploiters have a field day, year after year, joining hands
with those in power. The dynamics of this trickles down just like rest
of the trickling at snails pace and reaches the people through the
media when the game is over not live like India Pakistan cricket! That
too the news of exploitation is transferred into India
shining and companies like NALCO are awarded best players for
exporting, who bothers about how many are killed, maimed, displaced and
jailed or the cost of degradation of ecosystem!
When
such statements come it is immediately branded with the left and not
taken as simple human understanding in tow with what the rulers of this
earth are doing in pursuit of so called of development. It has taken
brutal killing of human beings for the media to take notice of mining,
one of the propagated temples along with the dams at the initiation of India's
partitioned independence. For past twelve years or is it thirteen now,
for eons years the adivasis of Orissa are struggling for their land to
survive in their culture. It is unacceptable to the world that a
culture other than 'money centred' can exist and if it does then it
does not have the right to live as far as the system's stooges, be it
MNCs, the state, the police and the different armed forces are
concerned. The minerals present in Orissa have instigated the powers to
be to take notice of the place and a vicious schema was initiated with
propagating poverty by media the malnutrition deaths at Kashipur.
Development began with building of dams and displacing of adivasis
living in these areas, a development, which lead to killing of three
adivasis in 2000 in Kashipur, get ten platoons of armed battalions and
further led to killing of twelve members at Kalinganagar in Jan 2006.
Mines require water and the dams were for the mines and hardly for the
people. Where there are no schools police stations were started to
crush the resistance in 2004.
The
most heinous of crimes of media is creating knowledge or ought it be
said controlling minds! Now the shift from Kashipur to Kalinganagar is
the shift from bauxite to steel; from rational to emotional, from,
opposing the system for resource plunder, to sympathy. Mining of
bauxite requires refineries which are banned from the first world
because of irreparable degradation of ecosystem, air, land and water!
And such refineries are dumped near the mining area such that alumina
can be extracted from bauxite leaving behind tons of hazardous waste
changing agriculture land into barren land masses. On top of this, it
wipes out the culture and lives of the adivasis living there from time
immemorial. Since there is nothing legal about the process what is the
use of bringing Samata judgment according right of land to adivasis
when loop holes like no land patta and denotifications are used to
emphasis legality of government allocations of lands. When Delhi,
Mumbai and Bangalore support groups were gearing to support the tribal
struggle against bauxite mining so far so that an IPT was done on 2nd Oct 2005 the terms of reference for the enquiry being, Livelihood of the local area people
, Environmental impact of both mining and alumina
plant, Human rights violation,
but the report is still pending, suddenly the media is focused on Kalinganagar. The recent Hindu publication Frontline (Volume 23 - Issue 02, Jan. 28 -
Feb. 10, 2006
http://www.flonnet.com/fl2302/stories/20060210004403500.htm),
one of the very few in media
has connected the State oppression across time and space; others are
doing but only as a result of severe brutalization. Dr. B D Sharma of
Bharat Jan Andolan has recently brought out a draft Non-Negotiable is The Ownership, which covers the issue extensively.
We
are at conflict with myths of poverty and development, where to wear
unstitched clothes and live from day to day symbolizes poverty and
plunder of resources and use all that money can buy becomes
development. How can we oppose industrialization which will remove
'poverty' and bring in 'development'? We cannot even comprehend a life
style which has a balance of work and rest without hoarding to make
profits in terms of money, to hell with degradation of Orissa, what is
Orissa anyway! And what richness is Orissa or any other State trying to
achieve and for whom. If anyone has misconception about people of
Orissa getting jobs in these industries then they need to visit America
and find out the situation of lamenting Americans whose jobs are all
taken up by migrating world! The people of Orissa let alone adivasis
would be last in the rung to get the limited jobs that would be made
available at huge costs. 4000 crores to create 1000 jobs for a period
of 25 years is the ratio of Hindalco- Alcan project for plundering the
biggest bauxite resource in India, none of it will do any good to the adivasis in Orissa and few in India
will be able to buy the final product! If land for land for adivasis is
considered then where from will this land come where they can have even
a semblance of vanishing life style from which we have ample to learn
from to redefine our money centred civilized sensibilities.
Chanda Asani
Chanda Asani
On behalf of Kashipur Solidarity group in Mumbai
30th Jan 2006
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"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world;
indeed it's the only thing that ever has" - Margaret Mead
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SAVAD RAHMAN
subeditor,MADHYAMAM daily,
pooppalam, perinthalmanna,kerala,
india
cell:(91)-9846085873
