Zero tolerance for intimidation
Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar’s recent claim that police reports indicated that people along the mining corridor were turning desperate and warning of an explosive situation developing as a result of the Supreme Court’s ban on illegal mining in Goa was, as if on cue, enacted by a crowd of reportedly mining dependent people who tried to intimidate the organizers and discussants at a seminar on the Shah Commission Report in Margao on Saturday. Police personnel on the ground reacted promptly to protect those being intimidated and helped them get away in one piece.
While everybody has a right to peaceful protest, nobody, and that means nobody, has the right to intimidate anyone who has organized an event because they weren’t invited to it or disagree with those participating in it. The situation in Margao turned ugly when the mob directed its ire at activists and leading members of civil society after an office-bearer from the transporters’ association initiated the attempt to accost the activists who had to leave the venue on the recommendation of the police.
Why there wasn’t enough police protection in the first place and why reinforcements failed to land up (though this is denied officially) as reported in this newspaper needs to be probed. More revealingly, the police have not even registered a case as yet on the specious plea that nobody has lodged a complaint! A top officer also told Herald that police has no intention of taking suo moto cognizance of the incident and refused to answer if a case of criminal intimidation, trespass et al was not made out. Whilst the Margao cops on the ground reacted bravely and with alacrity bringing glory to their uniform, the same cannot be said of their superiors.
What is deeply worrying for all Goans, however, is the manner in which, increasingly, small groups of people under the banner of one outfit or the other have become highly vocal in demanding imposition of their views on others via intimidation. And this is not limited to the case of proxies of the mining lobby. At any rate, in the case of those affected by the ban on illegal mining, their behaviour on the evidence of what transpired on Saturday in Margao, is unacceptable. The State government, whatever its views on the “plight” of the self-proclaimed mining dependent, has only one duty ~ the upholding of Raj Dharma, as former Prime Minister AB Vajpayee had to remind the BJP’s chief minister of Gujarat after the Godhra riots over a decade ago.
The same holds good today in the case of Goa. The State must not only uphold the law and protect its citizens however much or vehemently it disagrees with them, but also be seen to be doing so given that the Parrikar regime has made clear where its sympathies lie. In case you were wondering, they certainly don’t appear to lie with anti-mining activists or concerned citizens and members of civil society who have taken a stand against the rape of our natural resources.
The above is the cut-and-dried legal and Constitutional position. At the level of public discourse too, those dependent on mining for their livelihood ought not to think that they alone have the right to display their displeasure. Every citizen has a right to express his or her resentment at the scam perpetuated in and by the mining sector ~ as the Parrikar-authored PAC Report too detailed. The debate on how much if any of the mining in Goa is legal, what the possible solutions are to the mining mess that puts Goa and Goans first without falling foul of the law, what is the way forward and the like is a nuanced one and not susceptible to be won by intimidating those with a contrary point of view.
It is indeed a paradox that the “mining dependent” and their political benefactors question and blame activists, media, Justice MB Shah, the Supreme Court appointed CEC and in fact the apex court itself ~ not to mention anyone else who doesn’t agree with all they have to say ~ for being responsible for depriving them of their livelihood. Have they ever introspected on how their actions and those of their bosses actually contributed to the mess? Are they not to be held to account by the laws of the land? Were these honorable men and women, who now cry out loud and want to be heard at any cost even it means ramming their views down others’ throats, blind to the illegalities all around them or was it just plain indifference due to the lure of lucre? Who is answerable for the destruction of farm lands? Mining rejects accumulated over fertile land, mining dust settled on leaves and trees, homes were destroyed as a result of floods triggered due to indiscriminate mining but nobody wants to take responsibility for all that!
Strange, that people blame others for their misdemeanors which have left farmers without any means of livelihood and families without breadwinners as they were killed under the wheels of truckers speeding in their quest to rake in bigger profits.
Yet, there are groups which have the gall to disrupt a meeting and even threaten to disrupt water supply from Selaulim. What kind of government is this that allows trouble-makers to get away disrupting private functions and threatening to disrupt water supply with not even a police case being filed?
In proverbial Konkani, it is apparent that the mining sector still holds the tail of the government in its hand! Questions are now being asked as to how a large, irate, “mining dependent” mob found its way into a private function demanding that their voice be heard. While their side of the story certainly needs to be known, the methods employed are entirely unacceptable and if the government doesn’t take note and/or suitable action, the Governor must step in to point out to the government where its duty lies.
Four bus loads of mine workers were reportedly carted to Margao on Saturday. Who funded these buses to transport struggling workers to Goa’s commercial capital? Going by the footage on cable TV, it is apparent that the unrest is predominant among the “better off” of the “mining dependent” who are seemingly troubled by turning off of their erstwhile easy cash flow during previous Congress regimes and are now finding it hard to part with their expensive mobile phones, i-pads, Blackberry handsets and gold ornaments to pay off their EMIs.
Those displaced by the ban on mining must realize that the government of the day has been more than sympathetic to them despite the rampant illegalities in the mining sector by even offering a government dole. So, don’t activists ~ in fact, all citizens ~ have the right to object to the government’s decision to offer a subsistence allowance to the mining dependent when it comes from taxes paid by them? Strange indeed that the greatest beneficiaries of the industry continue flaunting their wealth, unmindful of the workers’ plight… and nobody has the courage to arrest them or even file an FIR!
