The desire to transform the economy at a
pace that will attract even more investment seems to be the principal desire of
several governments around the world. That however is a double edged sword.
That desire for development sometimes results in the blurring of lines between
good governance and the absence of it.
This was the central theme of a talk given
by Sudeep Chakravarti at the Goa Arts and Literary Festival yesterday as he
discussed his book titled Clear. Hold. Build: Hard Lessons of Business and
Human Rights in India. Speaking to the Herald, he said “It is not unusual for a
big company to follow all the rules in Europe but will flout them in India.
Lafarge, the French cement company is a classic example that comes to mind.” He
went on to cite examples of companies like Tata which got it wrong with human
rights and community interaction in West Bengal. Another corporate whose name
was in a media storm was Vedanta Resources PLC which insisted on mining in the
Niyamgiri Hills in the face of opposition from the tribal residents who were
not consulted before an MOU was signed between the state government and the
company.
If you enjoyed reading this article, you can help support our journalism by adding OHeraldo as a preferred source.
Asked why this was happening so regularly
in the country, he said that the legislation was in place but its
implementation was poor. Government in
India, he said was increasingly backing big business which had backed the party
in its bid to gain power. Payback time was inevitable and in this usually,
people suffered. People were fighting back with cases, non violent protests or
going off to join the maoists which were very smart in playing the relevant
tune according to the requirements of the audience. CSR, he said, was
essentially balance sheet CSR, with large companies having projects all over
the country and initiating activities in other parts of the country. So far, if
a company had depleted ground water in Kerala it would then set up 50 schools
in UP and justify having done the right thing.
The situation, he said was not helped by
the fact that a large section of the media was compromised, with most scared to
take on these big guns, since it could mean a disruption in the flow of
advertisements which paid salaries. Many in the media were greedy, he said and
the situation will get worse as the years go by.
Perhaps only time, he said will tell where all this would end.
