Farmers of Gujarat
The conflict between Modi’s Gujarat and farmer’s Gujarat seems to be coming to head and could lay waste Modi’s great claims of Rs 20.83 trillion investment at the Vibrant Gujarat summit this year.
By RK Misra
A veritable time bomb is ticking under the table of a power sated Narendra Modi government as it grapples with the herculean problem of finding land to fulfill the fairytale needs of the Rs 20.83 trillion worth of investment promises announced with aplomb on January 13 this year at the fifth Vibrant Gujarat Investor’s summit. Stray ambers may just barely be visible above the ground but cold fires rage within and opposition to the mounting clamour for land is crystalllising in rural Gujarat.
Farmers and fishermen in the state are up in arms against six mega projects proposed to be set up along the 1600-km-long coast. The projects include a nuclear thermal plant, two thermal power stations, a cement plant, a coal jetty and a multi-product Special Economic Zone.
The protesting farmers are buoyed by the sweet smell of a possible victory wafting across the countryside from a protracted battle — both legal and mass supported — with corporate major Nirma. At the end of a legal battle which went right upto the Supreme Court, the Union ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) has issued a show-cause notice to Nirma for permanent suspension of work and revocation of the environment clearance for the company’s upcoming cement plant near Mahuva in Bhavnagar district.This came after a Supreme Court appointed panel of experts advised against locating the plant at it’s present proposed site.
Union Minister of State for Environment and Forest Jairam Ramesh is already on record expressing concern at the threat to the fragile ecology of coastal region of Gujarat and other wetlands from large ports and cement plants. The minister’s statement provided a boost to the ongoing protests by farmers of coastal Bhavnagar district against the proposed cement plant of Nirma and by fishermen of Kutch against the country’s largest private port at Mundra operated by the Adani Group.
Over 5,000 farmers of Mahuva taluka of Bhavnagar, led by BJP MLA Kanubhai Kalsaria had taken out a 350-km protest march to Gandhinagar, the state capital, in support of their demand for the scrapping of the Nirma cement plant.
The MoEF, in its notice, has asked Nirma to stop work on the site permanently, alleging that the company had provided ‘half-truths’ in the environment impact assessment report it had submitted to obtain environment clearance. Nirma challenged it in the Supreme Court. An apex court appointed panel which studied the issue has reported back against the project. Rubbishing this charge, Nirma said the MoEF itself had stated before both the Gujarat High Court and the Supreme Court that the environment clearance to the project was legal. The agitating farmers of Mahuva had alleged that the cement plant would adversely impact the artificial water body built by them in 2000 to check salinity ingress and irrigate their farm land.
Nirma was given environment clearance for the project in December 2008. Following this, farmers from the village, led by BJP MLA from Mahuva Dr Kanubhai Kalsariya, launched an agitation against the plant.
The protesting farmers said the land, which was shown as ‘wasteland’ by Nirma and the state government to get environmental clearance, is actually a special freshwater body constructed to control salinity ingress from the sea. Mining in the area would ruin their livelihood, the farmers say. The fight against corporate giant Nirma by determined farmers led by a frail medico MLA of the BJP who had the courage to stand up to the might of Modi and snatch a veritable victory has proved a beacon for many others battling similar situations. Resistance is now mounting in Mithi Virdi area of coastal Bhavnagar against a 6000 MW nuclear power plant proposed to be set up by the Union government. The villagers from five fruit orchard bearing hamlets — Jaspara, Mithi Virdi, Khadarpar, Mandva and Sosiya — have come together and pledged that they would rather die than give their fertile farmland for the power plant.
The movement has gained strength from the recently successful farmers stir against corporate giant Nirma’s proposed cement plant in adjacent Mahuva block. The resolve of the farmers have pulled together political activists cutting across party lines. “Generations have been sustained on this land which yields cereal, fruits like mangos, coconuts, berries and chikoo. We will not sell it even for a crore of rupees,” says Geetaben of Jaspara village. This undulating coastal area in Bhavnagar yields various types of high quality fruits including mangoes and chikoos. The land officially falls under the double crop agriculture category. In spite of this, efforts are on to acquire 877 hectares to set up six nuclear reactors for the plant.
Former finance minister Sanat Mehta says the argument being advanced is that it is power which is clean and comes cheap. “If this is so clean and cheap, why don’t they locate it in Delhi or Gandhinagar?
While the octogenarian Congress leader of yore has emerged as an emphatic votary of the farmers stir in the state, this stir is being led by Gordhan Zadaphia, former minister of state for home affairs in Narendra Modi’s government. Dr Kanu Kalsaria, the new face of farmer’s movement in Gujarat as well as nonagenarian Gandhian Chunibhai Vaidya is also part of the movement. The cooling water requirement for the project has been estimated at 41,760 million liters per day (mld), which will be drawn from the Arabian Sea. The fresh water requirement for the plant is estimated at 15 mld and 3 mld for township. Fear of losing land is not the sole consideration for the opposition, the nuclear disasters at Chernobyl and Fukushima haunt them in equal measure.
The MoEF has also issued a show cause notice to the Mundra Port SEZ of the Adani group for alleged violation of the Coastal Regulation Zone Notification 1991 following a decade long agitation by fishermen.
The proposed thermal power project of the Shapoorji Pallonji group at Kodinar and the Essar coal jetty near Salaya too have been facing protests from local farmers. The farmers have also filed a public interest litigation (PIL) in the Gujarat High Court against these projects.
Modi’s bi-annual Vibrant Gujarat Global Investors summit held with amid giddying publicity blitz has raised the hackles of farmers who fear that this mad race for industrialization will extract a heavy price of agriculturally fertile land. Already corporate India which signed MoUs at the summit is mounting pressure on the state government to provide land to the industrial bodies to set up their units in state. On the other hand the farmers in the state are on warpath resisting land acquisition by the government as well as industries in the state.
Sanand near Ahmedabad, where the Chief Minister has allotted land to the Tatas to set up its factory for Nano cars is also witnessing resistance as is Mocha in Porbandar district against illegal mining of lime stone, against acquisition of grazing land at Jharpara in Kutch, at Vadodara Jhala in Junagadh and few other places across Gujarat.
Veteran Gandhian Chunibhai Vaidya who has been associated with almost all the cases however claims that the political faces have been consciously kept out of the issue. “They politicize with no concurrent benefit for the people at the grassroots level,” he added. The stir however, has found an unlikely ally in a Sangh parivar outfit. “In spite of the fact that the state is ruled by a BJP led government, the Bharatiya Kisan Sangh (BKS) has extended its support to the struggle in almost all these areas,” Vaidya said.
Farmer leaders are emphatic that the coming days will see a bunching together of the ruralites with greater organizational strength. The mounting schism between Modi’s Gujarat (industrialists’ Gujarat) and the farmers’ Gujarat will soon see matters come to a head,” forecasts former finance minister Mehta.