Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Protests and Blockages
India is rich in minerals but it has failed to capitalize on this potential wealth in a way that
would enable three main interest groups to benefit - the national economy, the state where
the minerals are found, and the farmers, tenants and tribals who lose their homes on land
whose surface they own, though not the rights to mineral extraction. The same applies to
industrial projects such as steelworks and special economic zones (SEZs). For years, com-
panies have secured licences and environmental clearances - and the freedom to bypass
them - by bribing politicians and officials in the central and state governments.
Large-scale projects became especially controversial in the 2000s, sometimes with viol-
ent clashes and deaths. Twelve tribals were killed in January 2006 during protests against
a massive 3,400-acre Tata Steel project at Kalinganagar in Odisha. Other steel ventures
planned by Arcelor Mittal - the world's biggest steel group, controlled by Lakshmi Mit-
tal, a London-based Indian-born entrepreneur - also failed to move ahead in Odisha
and Jharkhand, as has a $12bn steelworks in Odisha planned by Pohang Steel Company
(POSCO) of South Korea. In West Bengal, politically backed opposition escalated to such
an extent that 14 people were shot and killed by police during a demonstration in March
2007 over a proposed chemicals SEZ at Nandigram, and Tata Motors abandoned its pro-
posed factory outside Kolkata for its Nano 'one lakh' car. A bauxite mine run by Vedanta
Resources, a London-based group originally founded in India as Sterlite by Anil Agarw-
al, was hit because of dubious environmental clearances and other problems in Odisha's
Niyamgiri Hills where tribals protected what they regarded as a sacred mountain. Vedanta
had previously run into environmental problems and international controversy over cutting
down forests and other work in the state.
Soon after it was elected in 2004, the Congress-led UPA coalition government tried to
speed up such industrial and mining projects. It also started a new phase of SEZs, of which
most floundered in controversy. Manmohan Singh gave prime ministerial support to the
plans, but the edifice came tumbling down because it was built on weak social and eco-
nomic policy foundations at a time when India's economy was booming, and there was a
growing demand for the new wealth to be shared with those displaced by industry. Con-
troversies over the use of land escalated from local protests to become national issues with
the violent clashes, and Kalinganagar, Nandigram and Singur were seen internationally as
symbols of what was wrong with the new India. At the same time, Jairam Ramesh, as the
