Vedanta paid price for breaking law: Rahul Gandhi

The Economic Times, Sept 15, 2010

KOLKATA: In a development that could soothe the frayed nerves of investors, Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi on Thursday decoupled the environment ministry’s rejection of Vedanta’s bid to mine bauxite in the Niyamgiri hills from other projects waiting for the government’s go-ahead.

Mr Gandhi told a press conference in Kolkata that action against Vedanta’s project should not be seen as part of a “corporate versus tribals” issue, but as one that falls in the violation of law.

“What was going on there (Niyamgiri hills in Orissa’s Kalahandi district) was illegal. It is not an issue of corporates versus tribals. The real issue is illegal mining. It is criminal,” Mr Gandhi said.

Mr Gandhi, who anchored his party’s biggest tribal outreach on the environment ministry’s action against Vedanta, said he would be in the vanguard of every movement that struggles for the legitimate demands of marginalised sections. He referred to his 2008 remark that he was the tribals’ “sipahi” in Delhi.

“I have a soft corner for all Indians. But there are some Indians who do not get the same kind of benefits as others do,” he said.

On its part, Vedanta has denied that it violated laws in Niyamgiri. “Vedanta is a law-abiding company and has high respect for the law of the land,” Vedanta’s chief operating officer of Lanjigarh project, Mukesh Kumar, told ET.

He also said the denial of permission for bauxite mining in the Niyamgiri hills would not impact the operation of its Lanjigarh refinery and that efforts are on to obtain other mines.

Coming back to Mr Gandhi’s media interaction, he also stressed the need for a more acceptable land acquisition package. “We cannot allow transfer of land from poor to rich with no benefits going to the poor,” he said.

While acknowledging that hurdles cannot be allowed to come in the way of development, Mr Gandhi said resistance to land acquisition can be overcome only through a package that is a mix of cash and annuity benefits. “You need to acquire land for development of roads and railways. It is a fact. Haryana has a new land acquisition policy which is helpful for the poor,” he said.

It may be recalled that Sonia Gandhi had last week asked the government to emulate the Haryana model while working out its rehabilitation and relief bill.