PM Modi ignores RSS on Ghats?! NDA ignored concerns raised by the RSS as well as the Kerala unit of the BJP and said it is not considering the recommendations of the Madhav Gadgil Committee for protection of eco-sensitive Western Ghats. In an affidavit submitted before the Chennai bench of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) today, the Union environment ministry said it would instead go along with a subsequent report by former Isro chairman K. Kasturirangan. The affidavit was filed after the NGT warned of summons to the environment secretary if the Centre did not end ambiguity and clarify which of the two reports it was planning to implement. The Centre’s stand, which goes against the BJP’s poll promise of implementing the Gadgil report if it came to power, has embarrassed the party in Kerala. State unit chief V. Muraleedharan put up a brave face saying the Kerala unit still stood by its demand that the Gadgil panel suggestions be carried through in letter and spirit. Interests of the mining industry in BJP-ruled Goa, where the Ghats extend, may have been a key factor that weighed on the Centre. Protection of the Western Ghats has been a sensitive political issue in Kerala, with the Catholic Church firmly opposed to the Gadgil report that covered the entire Ghats, passing through several states, and included populated areas. The Church fears that tighter environment controls in hilly forest areas would mean displacement of people who are mostly its flock. The Church’s opposition put the ruling Congress in a spot. The Left, sensing an opportunity to wean away Christian votes from the Congress-led alliance, chose not to field a candidate in the Idukki Lok Sabha seat where the Western Ghats see the maximum settlements and encroachments. Instead, it offered tacit support to an Independent candidate fielded by a forum floated by the Church. The Congress got the then UPA II government at the Centre to appoint a second panel, under Kasturirangan, whose report exempted considerable inhabited areas. The Centre started acting on the report in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls. But the Independent went on to win from Idukki, beating the Congress candidate and revealing the Church’s hold over the region’s voters. The RSS national executive, which met in Kochi in October 2013, had voiced its disillusionment with the UPA for dumping the Gadgil report without debate and argued that “several recommendations of the panel are in the larger national interest”. In December 2013, the Sangh lost a man to the cause when suspected CPM cadres threw bombs at a dharna in Kozhikode for implementation of the Gadgil report.
Posted on: Fri, 29 Aug 2014 07:30:01 +0000