Billed to wreak natural and social havoc

This country is on the threshold of another horror that will lead, once again, to civil strife, the kind of which we have not seen yet. The implications of a proposed Bill, the recognition of forest rights for scheduled tribes, will cause unprecedented damage and destruction to the tribals, other ST/SCs, and India?s paltry forest cover wherein rest the water catchment areas for the survival of Indians regardless of caste, creed and economic status. The government that tables this Bill, in an effort to pass it through Parliament, will be heralding the worst desertification of this land and will be the godfather of killer diseases that they will bestow on their progeny. They will be cursed.

By actively lobbying for this new act to be tabled, the UPA will have assisted only one section of Indian professionals?the land mafia. If that is their intention, they should stand by their view and say it for what it is and not couch it in the bizarre argument that they are returning lands to tribals. That is untenable. It sounds humane and romantic but is, in fact, spurious in reality. It is creating another platform for rampant corruption and exploitation. The gang proposing this are damning what they call the babalog, the elite, the erstwhile royals.

I thought India, our India, was a democratic country and our Constitution allowed equal rights to the citizenry of all caste, creed and faith. I thought the UPA did not discriminate between rich and poor, economic levels, caste and creed. Then, why this attack on people who are raising a real issue and spelling out the pitfalls? Why the rush to push it through? This one desperate attempt has proven that the present government believes in sharpening the inherent divides to create voting constituencies and political divisions for its survival. They seem intellectually inadequate to think of other sane solutions to deal with such issues. The present government is batting for the easy, injurious option because senior secretaries in the PMO have made this issue their gayatri mantra.

It is easy to abuse a section of the public by referring to them as the environment-friendly babalog and elite. It is hugely tough to come up with contemporary solutions. You need to use the brain! That exercise is tough for the brigade that is intent on destroying the natural heritage of Bharat.

Mr Prime Minister?you will distribute and give ownership of 50 million hectares out of 68 million hectares to 8% of Indians, and by 2013 there will be nothing left. You call them tribals, we call them fellow Indians. Politicians create the divisions, we hope to merge them. Forests and the water catchments belong to a united, independent India and not to any single community. When PMO-trusted, ?politically correct? NGOs, retort by saying that those given forest land will protect the forest in circa 2005, they are misleading you. Generate a debate, sir. The non-beneficiaries, also around the forests, will definitely fight the beneficiaries?you will have triggered indescribable destruction. It will affect the tribals and other lower castes that you will have discriminated against. Ironically, the elite and the babalog will be unaffected, despite what the proponents are saying.

And, here is the rest of the potential crime that the draft perpetuates: There will be no eviction till the entire settlement of rights is completed?perpetual built-in stay against eviction, in case a slightly more sensitive government in the future tries to reverse the unimaginable tragedy. Felling trees will not be a cognisable offence for tribals?only a maximum 1,000 rupee fine to be imposed by the gram sabha! Any land mafia will be happy to pay a fine of a thousand rupees per tree felled. Surely it does not require much to understand that. This business of empowering the gram sabhas in this manner is a perfect set up for corruption and exploitation.

It is sad that in a country ridden with corruption stemming from the administration and all such bodies, a fact that every citizen, including you, sir, know, I am surprised and distressed that this government is endorsing this draft Bill. With it, every Supreme Court order and Protection Act instituted in India by many Prime Ministers, including Indira and Rajiv Gandhi, to whose party you belong, will become null and void.