By Patricia Mukhim
There is a book for very vice and virtue on this earth. The book, “The Rise of Political Lying” by Peter Oborne says, “Citizens have a right to form a fair and balanced judgment, and are therefore entitled to be informed about their political choices. This includes the right not to be deceived. Lying in a democracy has been regarded as an especially disreputable act.” Under the MDA regime the mining tragedy occurring at Umpleng village near Sutnga is the third of its kind. The one at Ksan in December 2018 had attracted national and international attention. But after that people tend to become inured to similar incidents. Compassion fatigue sets it and those who are supposed to be held accountable under the laws of the land including the Right to Life, listed under Article 21 of the Indian Constitution, get away every time and its coal mining business as usual in Meghalaya.
The reason for quoting from the book cited above is because after the mining tragedy that happened on May 30 was brought to the attention of Meghalaya Police, the Minister for Disaster Management, Kyrmen Shylla told the media that there is no “illegal” mining in Meghalaya. What is this if not a blatant lie? The Supreme Court did not give a blanket order to lift the ban on coal mining. In August 2019, the Supreme Court said it was inclined to lift the ban on coal mining provided (a) the State has a mining policy that includes plans for scientific mining with minimum impact to the environment and a reclamation policy for abandoned mines as the water that remains trapped in these abandoned mines is what causes sudden floods in mines that are still operating (b) that rat hole mining is stopped forthwith (c) that mining be carried out by established agencies like Coal India Ltd etc. The tragedy is that the Supreme Court did not appoint an ombudsman to ensure that its directives are followed in letter and spirit. Clearly, a court of law should educate Mr Shylla the difference between legal and illegal.
Following the Ksan mine tragedy of 2018 several media houses – print, electronic, web-based have sent their reporters to East Jaintia Hills to do their share of stories on the horrific manner in which coal is brought up from mines that are 300-500 feet inside the earth. Some intrepid journalists from reputed national media and human rights activists continue to visit the infamous rat hole mines of Jaintia Hills and go back to write scathing stories and articles which get worldwide attention but nothing happens after that. This writer has written reams on this inhuman practice where a few mine owners accumulate wealth and then try and control the political narrative so they can enjoy both power and wealth.
A state government dependent on the mining lobby for its survival allowed mining to carry on without following any of the directives of the apex court. Coal continues to be mined and transported outside the state clandestinely; accidents continue to happen. The state loses approximately Rs 600 crore revenue that it used to earn from the sale and export of coal. Meghalaya exports coal to Bangladesh which is using it for its cement plants at Chatak. It also exports a substantial amount to states outside the region. This has carried on unabated even during the pendency of the NGT ban that had been enforced since April 2014.
When the political establishment is determined to break the law there is very little that the administration and police can do, or so it seems in Meghalaya where the administration has never dared stand up to the political executives. A senior government official even blamed the labourers from Assam for coming to work in these mines despite knowing that rat hole mining is illegal and the accompanying hazards of being trapped inside the mines. What’s also interesting is that the coal mine owners of Meghalaya usually outsource the entire business of extracting coal, to non-tribal ‘thekedars’ who are called ‘sordars.’ In this case the sordar is a Muslim from Cachar district of Assam. The tribal mine owners don’t want to get into the intricacies of managing their mines. They only want the money that accrues from the mined coal. And MLAs and ministers of Meghalaya continue to lie through their false teeth that there is no illegal mining
In the above cited book Peter Oborne questions what this rise in political lying says about our society. He asks whether we have reached a point when we have ceased to believe a single word that politicians say. Oborne tried tracing the lying habit of politicians during the Tony Blair and John Major regime and found that it had risen exponentially. Oborne demonstrates that the truth has become an increasingly slippery concept in recent years. Right from ambiguous pronouncements that are designed to obfuscate to blatant lies with the intention to deceive, political lying has become embedded in political practice. Unless politicians are pulled up for perjury one wonders how political lying will be tackled. Unless, of course, voters call the politicians’ bluffs and vote them out.
As if rat hole mining is not enough we now have coke plants with coal as the raw material. Coke plants by the dozens have come up near the coal mining areas of East and West Jaintia Hills and West Khasi Hills. The Shillong MP has also drawn the attention of the government to this offence. These coke plants are highly polluting so it’s pertinent to ask how those running these coke plants have got clearances from the State and Central Pollution Control Agencies. Are these agencies checking pollution or looking the other way?
The other day an educated young lady, a native of East Jaintia Hills called up to say that the area has become so polluted that people can hardly inhale the air which is thick with smog and many are becoming ill. She said the water is unfit for drinking as it is highly acidic. Her family, she says, have had to leave their home and come to live here in Shillong in a small rented accommodation so that they can at least breathe fresh air and get clean water to drink. There are many such residents in East Jaintia Hills who are affected by these coke plants but they have been so intimidated by the mafia that owns these coke plants that they dare not utter a word for fear of being killed. And that is not even a remote possibility; it is a clear and present danger.
Yet the elected representative of these areas continue to deny the existence of rat hole mining which is still conducted illegally. In 2018 two activists who were going to document the illegal rat hole mining were brutally attacked and left for dead. The person behind the crime – a political activist was arrested but released, as is usual in Meghalaya where the conviction rate for crimes is and has always been abysmal.
So what do citizens do when the government repeatedly indulges in political lying from dispensing assistance to the poor to coal mining that pulverises the environment and now coke plants that will soon turn East Jaintia Hills into a ghost town no longer habitable for want of clean air and water? The answer to this question and other troubling ones blows in the putrefying waste of the dead inside the mines – so many of them whose bodies become part of the coal seams to be dug out some day by some other destitute miner. What a tragedy indeed! And to think that those who support this deadly cycle of annihilation of human lives continue to be elected! This surely is a deadly democracy!