If a Union Budget is supposed to be not just a document of numbers, but a precursor to the shape of policy initiatives to come, then the 2015-16 Budget presented by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley needs to be seen as a recipe for unmitigated disaster.
There is nothing wrong with a government that calls for economic growth; after all, everyone wants to have a better life. But when policy initiatives pave the way for a flagrant and unrepentant exploitation of natural resources and turns a Nelson’s eye to environmental safeguards, one needs to question the intentions: for, a better life is not what it can lead to.
Let’s not get into rants, but instead stoically and unemotionally look at the numbers that the Finance Minister presented before Parliament on February 28. Jaitley stressed on the need to tackle environmental degradation; and towards this, doubled the clean energy cess on coal, made some allocation for electrical vehicles, and exempted effluent treatment plants from paying service tax. The measures, prima facie, are not regressive by any yardstick.
But if you step back and look at the bigger picture, you will realise that the token and piecemeal measures are nothing short of environmental skulduggery. Jaitley has cut the allocation of funds for the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC) to Rs 1,681.60 crore from the Rs 1,764.60 crore in the ministry’s revised estimate for 2014-15.
That itself ought to be telling. At a time when the country is in the throes of an environmental crisis, the last thing you would do to arrest the decline is to slash funds. This, he did under different heads. The allocation for the Project Tiger, for instance. has been brought down to Rs 136.46 crore for the year starting 1 April, a decrease of around 15 per cent from Rs 161.02 crore in 2014-15. And as any conservationist will tell you: the apparent increase in tiger numbers does not mean that protected areas are a paragon of environmental health.
Environmentalist Leo Saldhana summed up the dismal and seemingly disconcerting state of affairs through a Facebook post: “Recently following an interaction with senior officials of the Central Pollution Control Board, one of the officers quipped that the budget for the entire CPCB was equal to the cost of a Delhi Metro pillar: Rs 50 crore. He wasn’t exactly right. Perhaps it’s the cost of two Metro pillars. But we get the point.” We certainly do.
And we do also understand that the cost of barely six Delhi Metro pillars is what has been allocated to as many as 47 Tiger Reserves in the country spread across 68,676.47 sq km. This is not to say that the Delhi Metro needs to be done away with. The argument, however, does make a point. You need to be blind to miss it. Or someone pathologically unreasonable.
Yet, we shouldn’t be entirely surprised that funds are being made to dry up. The BJP-led NDA government came to power on basis of a number of factors: promising “development” was one of those. Herein, one needs to keep in mind that “environment” is needlessly and unfortunately perceived as an anti-thesis of “development” by both policymakers as well as a pliable media that fervently believes that it can be happy only if and when markets are happy.
The very first measure that the Narendra Modi dispensation had taken on the environmental front was to rename the ministry itself – by adding two words: climate change, and eventually misleading everyone. But alas, if only words could speak louder than action.
The action came, but not as one that was either proactive or pragmatic. The first was in the form of a controversial report drawn up by the Intelligence Bureau. The loophole-filled report, that had virtually dubbed individuals and organisations as enemies of the State simply because they talked about or fought for human and environmental rights, made it amply clear that anyone who questioned the agenda of the government would be questioning development per se. The IB report that was submitted to the Centre in June 2014 had accused activists of “stalling development projects” by protesting against power projects, mining and genetically modified food. The atmosphere of hostility and vindictiveness was conjured up from day one.
The second action indicating which way the agenda of the government was headed came when the high-level committee headed by former Cabinet Secretary TSR Subramanian was constituted. It was tasked with reviewing laws related to environment and forest protection; but its recommendations subsequent that were leaked to the Press, were a foregone conclusion.
The committee called for an exhaustive restructuring of a number of critical laws, special fast-track mechanism for power and mining projects, self-certification of compliance by industry (instead of clearances), and diluting the powers of the National Green Tribunal (NGT). It also sought an amendment to the Forest Rights Act so that all linear projects, i.e. roads, pipelines and power lines, etc, can be cleared. The Subramanian Committee had certainly exceeded its brief: it had not been asked to review the Forest Rights Act or the National Green Tribunal Act.
The government’s intention, going by the panel’s recommendations, all along had been to downgrade the ministry into a mere clearing house, instead of ensuring that the environment is protected (which is specifically the mandate of MoEFCC) by adhering to the laws of the land. The legerdemain in this case was necessary to change the question simply to fit the answer.
The hounding of environmental NGO Greenpeace needs to be seen in this light. The first thing that the Ministry of Home Affairs did after the IB report had been submitted was to lock Greenpeace’s funds. Greenpeace moved court, and the Delhi High Court’s order to this effect finally came in January this year. The court directed the government to “unblock” foreign contributions to the tune of Rs 1.87 crore received by Greenpeace from its Amsterdam headquarters, saying the ministry showed “no material to restrict access” to the foreign fund.
This was not only about Greenpeace winning a case; it was equally about what the court had remarked – that all NGOs were entitled to have their viewpoints and merely because their views are not in consonance with that of the government’s, it does not mean they were acting against national interest. It was a resounding slap on the face of the authorities.
Another slap was to follow in February. Priya Pillai, a campaigner with the group who was on her way to London to make a presentation before British MPs on alleged human rights violations at Mahan in Madhya Pradesh, had been off-loaded from her flight at Delhi airport. The Delhi High Court last month described the government’s action as “inappropriate” and observed that there could be differences of opinion but it did not mean that a person’s movement could be curtailed. And it added that a different point of view does not tantamount to being anti-national. Jingoism didn’t quite work in court.
Jaitley’s environmentally-callous stand therefore did not come as a bolt from the blue – it was only a Budgetary way of confirming one’s suspicions. This government, suffering from as much manic obsession with “growth” as the earlier Congress-led UPA regime had, sees anything and anyone environmental as a nefarious enemy. Like Gollum in The Lord of The Rings, the government is consumed by hatred (of environmentalists) so much that it cannot see reason even when reason stares it in the face – it does not realise that there is no Planet B.
