By Edilbert Kharsyntiew
Is the National Green Tribunal’s (NGT) action banning coal mining a boon or a bane? NGT’s act must be seen as a blessing in disguise. It has exposed the underbelly of heartless capitalism which has destroyed Jaintia hills’ beauty, polluted rivers, killed fishes, changed the physical landscape and upset the family and social fabric through sudden wealth, absence of financial morality and unprecedented influx of cheap albeit illegal workforce from across borders. Criminality of a typical nature wherever heartless capitalism operates! It first of all strips employees of their legal entity thereby reducing them to slaves, by confiscating their passports, chaining children or just buying trafficked individuals in the first place. People without proper work or stay visas are no better than slaves. They are entirely at the mercy of their employers. This dumping of poor identity-less migrants beginning with the Indira-Majibur agreement is illogically strange. It’s nothing but an illegal displacement of the poorest of the poor, who were not wanted back even long after the internal crisis, the reason for their displacement, had blown over.
Stranger still is the attempt to spiritualize the issue through the ‘love your neighbour’ campaign, when the issue is legal and not religious. It confuses good parents who try to teach their children to respect the law. Loving your neighbour as yourself does not exist in a moral or legal vacuum. No good husband will give his wife to his dear friend to have sex with her, nor will a good father allow his son to drive without a driving license. There are boundaries in love. You do not go to a self-respecting country like Japan and demand entry or citizenship in the name of ‘love your neighbour’. There are rigorous procedures to be followed. The paperwork is daunting and the wait oftentimes excruciating to get clearance for entry, even by those married to citizens of those countries. In comparison, there is a mockery of the whole concept of citizenship and border sanctity in this part of the world. The bane of this whole mining thing which makes its banning a boon is that the bulk of its workforce is derived from such identity-less migrants.
Secondly, this form of capitalism is ‘heartless’ for lack of financial morality which pays due regards to the future of society and nature. No schools, hospitals, better workers’ living conditions, environmental care or tourism projects as direct voluntary creations from coal money are visible. When money is available, primitive conditions of life and work are not excusable. TIME did a comparative study between Chinese and Indian construction workers and the difference is vast. There are clean private cubicles with showers, toilets and TVs for the Chinese, while on the Indian side? Well, the less said the better. Why should these conditions prevail particularly in a state where life itself is undervalued?
However, banning is also a bane when we consider the other picture. What with poor workers abandoning their children; schools, shops and churches closing down; drivers, handymen and hawkers rendered jobless and so forth. The ban is definitely a bane. This article certainly does not echo popular opinion since banning of mining is presently a global phenomenon. The indigenous context being different, with its relatively small economy hard hit due to the ban, the yardstick used has to be considerately different. The jeering of the traditional method of mining in favour of the much touted ‘scientific method’ of mining is actually laughable. What is so scientific about digging so deep and wide that it becomes neither economically nor environmentally viable. Following this method, the destruction of the beautiful hills in West Khasi will be more complete and faster. The traditional method still holds good with its minimally invasive method, provided it is modernized, with upgraded equipments, oxygen supply, body gear, seismic sensors and alarm systems. Further, there is urgent need for a total system overhaul, from registration of labourers, mine owners, traders etc to regulation of mining sites, depots and ensuring safe distance from rivers and human habitats.
Finally, the wheels of economy have to keep turning. Society has to move forward or entropy sets in. There’s no way out. A society that fails to produce goes into debt through borrowing, and it’s precisely what happens to the American dying economy. They kept borrowing and printed money out of thin air without gold backing, a total contrast to a highly productive China which accounts for its massive stride forward. As population grows, so does consumption spending on utility items, education, health, transport and housing. The demand for cash, fuel for housing and mobility, glass, iron, cement, sand, plastic, stones, clay etc will correspond to population growth. In this light, banning of sand mining or making of cement is nonsensical, unless society as a whole reverts back to the Amish lifestyle. Banning is not the answer. Yes it’s a fine balancing act between growing human needs and preservation of the fragile environment. But it can be done through regulation. Clear boundaries have to be drawn so mother earth is not bled like we witness in Jaintia Hills. It calls for learning from past mistakes.
Banning therefore is not the best option. It is a poor substitute to hard work. It is tough to regulate and even tougher to consistently do so. A well meaning and highly motivated regulatory body like the present KHADC has to set a benchmark in this and prove to the whole world that it can rise to the challenge. If there is such a guarantee of a new beginning, who knows the future? The ban may be lifted.