*Report of FOIL Vedanta Protest sent by Kalpana Wilson of South Asia Solidarity Group, London *
* * *Protest at Vedanta plc’s AGM in London, 28 July 2010* The demonstration organized by a large and vocal group from Foil Vedanta was very successful with about 250 people and a very energetic protest including slogans saying ‘Anil Agarwal, Blood on Your hands’ ‘Who killed Arsi Majhi? Vedanta, Vedanta’ and masks of Anil Agarwal as a Wanted Criminal and of David Cameron and Manmohan Singh as accomplices in the crimes of Vedanta. Despite police efforts to keep the demonstrators away from the building in which the AGM was being held, (The Institute of Civil Engineers, in Westminster, London), they moved partially into it and on to the steps with a large banner proclaiming ‘ Vedanta plc : Stop the killings! stop the destruction!’ There were messages of support for the protest from organizations in India as well as Britain, including the All-India Central Council of Trade Unions (AICCTU) and the Greater London Association of Trade Union Councils. Inside the AGM, many shareholders were unhappy about Vedanta’s activities. Anil Agarwal chaired the meeting and Naresh Chandra, a Vedanta plc Board Member took all the questions. They were faced by a barrage of questions from shareholders critical of Vedanta, centering mainly on the destruction of the Niyamgiri mountain. Vedanta tried to counter this by showing a power point presentation by Mukesh Kumar, the Chief Operating Officer of the Lanjigarh refinery, in which he made a number of claims about improvements in the quality of life of Dongria’s since the arrival of Vedanta plc in their region. He claimed that the Niyamgiri mountain was no longer worshipped by the Dongria and that they welcomed Vedanta’s intervention. These claims were challenged by Samarendra Das (author of the recent pathbreaking book ‘Out of this Earth’ Orient, Black Swan publishers) about the Aluminium industry who was attending the meeting as a shareholder. Das, himself from Orissa, with years of experience of working with the Dongrias accused Mukesh Kumar of misleading the shareholders and asked ‘How much do you know about the Dongrias? Can you even tell us the name of their God. Tell us if you know it!’ Mukesh Kumar was unable to answer and admitted that he did not know. After the AGM, two European banks announced that they were to disinvest in August this year and a representative of Aviva, the insurance company, said his company was also considering disinvesting. On 29 July 2010 10:07, Kamayani <[email protected]> wrote: > Activists and some investors will demonstrate against the Anil > agarwal-controlled British mining company Vedanta Resources during its 2010 > annual general meeting in London, and Bianca Jagger will deliver an Amnesty > International petition signed by over 30,000 people urging the company to > halt plans to mine bauxite in the eastern Indian state of Orissa. > > http://www.domain-b.com/companies/companies_v/Vedanta/20100728_activists_protests.html > -- > Adv Kamayani Bali Mahabal > +919820749204 > skype-lawyercumactivist > > "After a war, the silencing of arms is not enough. Peace means respecting > all rights. You can’t respect one of them and violate the others. When a > society doesn’t respect the rights of its citizens, it undermines peace and > leads it back to war.” > -- Maria Julia Hernandez > > > www.otherindia.org > www.binayaksen.net > www.phm-india.org > www.phmovement.org > www.ifhhro.org > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "humanrights movement" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected] > . > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]<humanrights-movement%[email protected]> > . > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/humanrights-movement?hl=en. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "humanrights movement" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/humanrights-movement?hl=en.
