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Paying The Price Of A Propaganda Coup

By Neerja Dasani

13 December, 2009
Countercurrents.org

If you want to know how you can sell your soul to the Market Mephistopheles while keeping your sainthood intact, just follow the news. Last week an English daily in its lead edit expressed indignation at the mining scam that was unearthed in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. “Taking on this unholy nexus of business and politics will be a stern test for both State governments – and for the country’s two leading political parties,” it said.

The sanctimonious rhetoric could make us forget that the same newspaper, as well as several other dailies and magazines, recently gave the multinational mining corporation, Vedanta Resources, a full page to proclaim its piety. Taking money from a company that has been accused of ethnicide would in itself be hard to justify but the timing and content of this advertisement makes it particularly problematic.

This is not merely a product promotion; it is an impudent exaltation of the same ‘unholy nexus’ that the paper condemns. The advertisement is essentially a long list of unsubstantiated ‘achievements’. While ‘celebrating the success of public private partnership’, the company expresses its gratitude to the ministry of mines, ministry of environment and forests, ministry of coal, ministry of power and the governments of Orissa, Chattisgarh and Rajasthan ‘for their support and expeditious clearances…’.

Most governments around the world would be embarrassed by such a public display of affection. Most media houses would express moral outrage. Here in emerging India things are different. It’s a bit more complicated when your Home Minister has represented the company in question in a court of law as well as been a member of its board of directors. How could the media ever do anything against ‘national interest’, even if ‘interest’ merely refers to a few bulging pockets?

Virtually everything Vedanta involves itself in is mired in controversy. In 2007, Zambia's biggest mining company, Konkola Copper Mine (KCM), owned by London-listed Vedanta Resources, caused widespread water pollution when its acidic effluent entered the Kafue River, the main source of water of about 2 million people in the area. In Armenia it underwent a criminal investigation into its unlawful gold operations and was disallowed from any further activity in the country. In November 2007 the government of Norway withdrew all investments in Vedanta after its Ethical Council concluded the company 'has caused serious damage to people and to the environment as a result of its economic activities'. And we haven’t even reached India yet, where most of its projects are located.

One such project in Niyamgiri, Orissa has recently come under severe criticism. This October, in an unprecedented attack on a major British company, the UK government ruled that Vedanta ‘did not respect the rights of the Dongria Kondh tribe’; ‘did not consider the impact of the construction of the mine on the (tribe’s) rights’; and ‘failed to put in place an adequate and timely consultation mechanism’. It concluded that ‘a change in the company’s behaviour is essential’.

Despite repeated requests from the UK government, the company ‘failed to provide any evidence during the examination’. Reports suggest this is the only time a company has refused to participate in an investigation by the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development.

The global loss of image has meant a 25 per cent fall in revenue. But instead of engaging in self-reflection the rational homo economicus has chosen the path of mass deception.

In the advertisement the company claims to have provided education – presumably this means teaching people that the definition of development is losing your land, livelihood and dignity; self-employment – irony at its best; and health and hygiene – could this be a sardonic reference to the Supreme Court Committee’s order to shut down its Tuticorin copper smelter for ‘fully violating’ the hazardous wastes rules?

It proudly proclaims the setting-up of Vedanta University, which has otherwise been described as one of the biggest land grabs in recent times. Naveen Patnaik’s government has gifted 6,000 acres (unofficial estimates suggest a figure of 10,000 acres) of fertile land for this noble endeavour. A number of political parties are now calling for a cancellation of the MoU.

In true showbiz style the ad leaves the best for the last. The company reveals its investment of Rs. 10, 000 crore in a bauxite-alumina project at Lanjigarh in Kalahandi, Orissa, ‘among the most under-developed districts of India – bringing transformational prosperity to the area’.

The journalist John Curtis’ must have meant another Lanjigarh in another country when he dug out parts of a Supreme Court Committee report in September 2005 indicting Vedanta’s activities in the region. “The people have been displaced from their houses through physical eviction by the District Administration. Many were beaten up by the employees of Vedanta… In the face of resistance, the District Collector and the company officials collaborated to coerce and threaten them. An atmosphere of fear was created through the hired goons, the police and the administration….After being forcibly removed they were kept under watch and ward by the armed guards of Vedanta and no outsider was allowed to meet them,” the report stated. It further adds that the project is ‘bound to destroy the water recharging capacity of the area’ and ‘cause the desertification of permanent streams’.

The Niyamgiri hills are meant to feed the alumina refinery at Lanjigarh. The government is on the verge of granting its approval despite continuing protests across the globe. By carrying this advertisement at this crucial juncture the media has chosen its side. They would of course claim anybody is free to place an advertisement in their paper and that it doesn’t reflect their editorial stance. So all the Dongria Kondh have to do is dish out Rs 1.2 crore to give the government their ‘honest regards for disregarding’ them. Seems like a fair deal.

But don’t expect any critical coverage or editorials; the fine art of objective journalism is best conducted in an atmosphere of silence. Nobody needs to know of the battle raging within. Let there be no analysing. Just say, “Koda”, “Bellary brothers”, “Operation Green Hunt” and so on, in isolation; they won’t bother connecting the dots.

Meanwhile, maybe we should suggest a new PR company for Vedanta. So next time they won’t use a photograph of people shielding themselves from the relentless rain with raging red umbrellas.



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