Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) National Convener Arvind Kejriwal has promised the people of Goa that if voted to power in the 2022 elections that he would resume mining in Goa within six months of his government coming to power. This can never happen. In 2014 a group of mining stakeholders bitterly blamed AAP for the plight of those affected by closure of iron ore extraction activity in Goa. AAP leader and founder Prashant Bhushan was arguing the mining case before the Supreme Court. According to the Financial Express dated 25/2/14 Bhushan argued before the SC that only 7,000 people were affected due to closure in mining industry when in reality there were over 2 lakh people engaged and dependent directly and indirectly in this industry.
Besides gunning for the total closure of mining operations, Bhushan presented nothing else before the Apex court.
At this critical juncture trade union leader Christopher Fonseca, founder of Goa Mining People’s Front (GMPF) attended more than 40 hearings in the Supreme Court. As the General Secretary of Goa Mining Labour Welfare Union (GMLWU) comrade Fonseca had intervened in the said petition before the Apex Court and steadfastly pursued the matter until a favourable verdict was given for resumption of mining in Goa.
Until 2018 Puttu Gaonkar was never associated nor had anything to do with the GMPF at any point of time. What is the agenda of this politician who has now joined AAP and promises the resumption of mining? Where was Kejriwal Chief Minister of Delhi and Gaonkar when delegates of GMPF met Manmohan Singh, the then Prime Minister of India in the presence of several other leaders like Sharad Pawar, Mrs Jayanti Natrajan, Rajnath Singh, Chidambaram, Arun Jaitley and several others? When the GMPF held four massive protest dharnas during this time at Jantar Mantar Delhi in favour of resumption of mining operations, except the AAP every other political party expressed their solidarity with the people of Goa.
Though the Chief Minister Kejriwal was the nearest, yet he chose to remain distant and apathetic to the struggles of the mining people in Delhi. So let’s be clear that the bugle about the resumption of mining by Puttu Gaonkar a recent entrant into the AAP and Kejriwal is a false one.
Goa’s iron ore industry which dates back to the Portuguese days ran into legal wrangles following the tabling of the Justice MB Shah Commission Report in Parliament in September 2012. The report revealed that Goa’s iron ore mining scam was worth Rs 35,000 crores. The voluminous report held both the Goa State and the Central government as parties to the scam, along with the powerful mining operators in the State, who according to Justice Shah plundered natural resources and facilitated an “unrestricted, unchecked and unregulated export of iron ore to China” which made private mining houses who were exporting the ore richer and richer”.
The former Chief Minister of Goa late Manohar Parrikar alleged that 20% of the mining in the State was illegal and the money involved was no less than Rs 40,000 crores. He openly stated that the man at the centre of all this loot was the ex-Chief Minister and minister for mines Digambar Kamat who held this portfolio for 12 consecutive years. Charge-sheets have been filed against the former CM Digambar Kamat for illegally condoning the delays and renewing leases which had lapsed without any legal sanction/authority. The former Goa mines Secretary and IAS officer Rajiv Yaduvanshi has turned an approver in this case. At present Digambar Kamat is out on bail that was granted ex-parte. Digambar Kamat, formerly a legislator of the BJP, is now a Congress legislator and the leader of the opposition.
The modern world simply cannot function without mining. Mineral products are essential components for cell phones, energy towers, solar panels, fertilisers, machinery and all kinds of construction. What cannot be grown has to be mined. Recently, The Goa Legislative Assembly passed the Goa Mineral Development Corporation Bill, 2021, for the formation of a State-run Corporation “to carry out mining operations in an orderly scientific and ecological sustainable manner” in a bid to restart the industry that has been halted since 2018 when the Supreme Court cancelled the renewals of 88 mining leases. The bill was passed sans any discussion amidst a walkout by the opposition parties. The Goa Forward Party (GFP) Chief and MLA of Fatorda Vijai Sardesai exclaimed “We do not want to be part of this illegal Act”. Incidentally Sardesai is a mould of the Congress and has spent most of his political life with this Party.
Goa’s political system is deeply entwined with the mining industry Goa’s first Chief Minister Dayanand Bandodkar was also a wealthy mine owner. The situation for the industry, dependents, stake holders, including the state of Goa, has and is increasingly getting difficult with delays in the resumption of mining in Goa. Auctioning of mines in Goa will certainly change the political scenario of this State with new players in the field. Is this why there is no progress in the pipeline for resumption of mining?
(The writer is a social scientist and a practising criminal lawyer).