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Mainstream, VOL XLIX, No 30, July 16, 2011

Peculiar Political Situation

Wednesday 20 July 2011

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COMMUNICATION

The sustained resistance to government acquisition of their lands for the POSCO composite project (port + steel plant + power plant) in Jagatsinghpur district of Odisha by the POSCO Pratirodh Sangram Samiti (PPSS) over the past five years has gained national, even international, attention since June 2011.

Politicians of certain political parties in Odisha have joined issue on the side of PPSS even while there is a United Action Committee (UAC) of persons who are reported to have agreed to acquisition of their lands for POSCO. It is interesting that these politicians are from parties as dissimilar as the CPI and BJP.

It may be cynical to assume that these politicians have joined on the side of the PPSS people with an eye towards political gain and not because they empathise with and genuinely support the people of Dhinkia, Nuagaon and Govindpur villages, who are under imminent threat of eviction by the Odisha State Police. That is the situation in Odisha, a State under the rule of the BJD, which not so long ago was a partner of the BJP-led NDA Union Government.

The BJP Government in Karnataka is in favour of another proposed POSCO project near Halligudi of Karnataka’s Gadag district, where resistance by the people to acquisition of their lands is growing. Thus the Karnataka BJP Government which favours the same multi-national company in Karnataka is embarrassed by the BJP’s support to the resistance against POSCO in Odisha.

Interestingly, the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee, which includes Union Ministers S.M. Krishna and Veerappa Moily (both former CMs), has come out in support of the people of Gadag district who are opposing the POSCO project. This is significant when the Congress-led UPA Union Government is in favour of the POSCO project in Odisha. Again, it may be cynical to assume that the Congress party in Karnataka has weighed in on the side of the people merely because the State Government is BJP-ruled.

POSCO is only one of the many business corporations that is pressing for land in many States of India for various projects. But the commonality is that everywhere such projects are opposed by people affected or to-be-affected by the projects due to the loss of land or livelihood (landless people) or post-project environmental degradation impacting on lives and livelihoods. Also common everywhere, the political party holding power in the various States is in agreement with and supports the business corporations, while the Opposition parties oppose it.

This peculiar nationwide scenario suggests that political parties across the spectrum are resorting to political expediency for the combined benefits of local political gains and freebies from the business corporations to fill party coffers and personal accounts. The interest of ordinary people appears to take a poor second priority.

Major General S.G. Vombatkere (Retd.)

475, 7th Main Road, Vijayanagar 1st Stage, Mysore-570017

Tel: 0821-2515187

July 10, 2011

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