The opposition Left Democratic Front and the Kerala Congress-M (a member of the ruling United Democratic Front) have joined hands to fight the Kasturirangan report on environmental controls in the Western Ghats. This could be just a step in a courtship dance or a ploy by either partners to gain some political mileage. What is interesting is that while the Kerala Catholic Bishop's Conference has come out against the Kasturirangan report the RSS is backing it. Environmental issues have always been divisive in India; in the Kerala model it can also have a communal twist.
The original inhabitants of the Western Ghats are tribal people. They have been reduced to a minority because of poverty-induced malnutrition and ill health, and the influx of settlers from the plains who have contributed to dispossess them. The majority of the settlers are Christians - a vote bank for the Kerala Congress-M and the sheep for the shepherds in the Bishop's Conference. Hence the opposition of the Bishop's Conference and the Kerala Congress-M to the Kasturirangan report seemingly has a logic to it. Likewise the support to it voiced by the organisation of tribal people led by C.K. Janu. The opposition by the Left Democratic Front and the support by the RSS are plainly attempts to fish in troubled waters.
Though all the opponents of the report has alleged that it is anti-farmer and has used this to bring out protesting farmers and their families to the street, they have avoided discussing the very short list of prohibitions in the report. There is a reason for this lapse. None of the five listed prohibitions in the Kasturirangan report has anything to do with farming. On the contrary, it prohibits really large-scale constructions of over tens of thousands sq. metres, quarries, mining, etc.. None of these activities are remotely connected to farming; they are of deep interest to big business Though the agitation against the Kasturirangan report is ostensibly in the name of the farmer it is for big business prohibits really large-scale constructions of over tens of thousands sq. metres, quarries, mining, etc.. None of these activities are remotely connected to farming; instead they are of deep interest to low value adding extractive business, and to those farmers hoping to exit farming after selling their land to such businesses.
If the prohibitions come to stay the real losers will be those who are already operating quarries, mines, etc. in the Western Ghats, those who were hoping to participate in the gang-rape of the region, and those farmers who want to sell out to these interests. Not farmers who want to farm; they stand to benefit from a clean environment. Though the agitation against the Kasturirangan report is ostensibly in the name of the farmer it is to protect the interests of the extractive nature-killing businesses.
