Interview of Nandlal Master by Sanjev and Anita - Jan 06

Part II

 You know that when a farmer uses water to irrigate his fields 8-10% of the water is used in irrigation and the rest goes back to the ground as ground water. Therefore the water level remains balanced. But Coke doesn’t do it this way. It sells all the water in the market, and disposes sludge and polluted water back to the fields. These by products pollute the agricultural lands and are dangerous to farming. And the biggest fundamental difference between coke company and the farmer is in the capacity of the bore well. Even today all farmers do not have bore wells and they buy it from other farmers who have a bore well. And do you know how much they buy it for?? Rs. 10 – 15 for 1 hour of water. The farmer who owns the bore well does not sell the water for more than that because he realizes that water is a basic necessity and that he is giving the water for a good cause, to produce things of necessity for the population. If the poorer farmer doesn’t get water then he may not be able to reap a good harvest. The farmer could have easily charged Rs 100- 150 per hour. But he doesn’t do it that way coz the money he charges for the water is not for his profit but it is only to pay the electricity bills and for the maintenance of the bore well. But when coke company runs the bore well for 1 hour he pulls out 9 lakh lts and sells it in the market and what is the amount of profit it collects?? Almost 10 lakhs. And that is the difference between a farmer and the Coca Cola company. And what products does coke produce that are necessary for mankind? The farmer produces grains and vegetables which are necessary for the people but all that coke does is make profit from its business. This is the fundamental issue were are fighting against. And so we claim that in our country we have absolutely no need for coke products. A lot of people ask us if we are against globalization or if we are against multinational companies. Personally I have nothing against them. And I know that any company whether it is an Indian or and American one, If an American company makes products that are important for the people then we will not oppose it and we will not consider it a culprit. But even if an Indian company, for eg. In the Nitish Kumar government they started selling at railway stations something that was called “Rail Neer” and they thought that if Multinational companies are making profit out of this business than we Indians can make some profit too from selling bottled water for Rs. 10. We are against such companies too. It is the governments responsibility to provide drinking water at railway stations. The government spends lakhs of rupees on weapons and border security and it claims it doesn’t have money necessary for people’s basic needs. So this is what we are fighting against.

And to come back to the current issue the coca cola company pulls out 25 lakh lts of water everyday from the ground. And the water level has gone down by 40-50 ft. The wells of farmers are drying away. That is why we oppose the plant and are calling for the plant to be shut down. The second issue is of pollution. The by products of the company have very high cadmium levels and the water that is left out is highly polluted. And the company sells it to the farmers as fertilizers. The farmers have been asked to use these in their fields. The farmers started using the sludge as fertilizer in a large scale and all the crops were destroyed. The soil has been damaged and the harvest was destroyed. The third issue is of the land which is owned by Gram Sabha. The company is illegally occupying the land. The local courts have also ordered the company to return the land but because of pressure from company officials none of the government officers have taken any steps. The government is also equally responsible. There was a Parley company near by. Coke bought the land from that company. So the company has to pay stamp duty for the transfer of property. So coke lied to the govt. that it bought the land for 5 crores and hence paid the govt. only 50 lakhs. It was later known that the land was bought for 31 crores. So the farmer went to court against this and the court decision was that the company owed an extra 1 crore 75 thousand on the stamp duty. And the court added a fine and asked the company to pay 3 crore 1.5 lakhs. And now this is so ironical. If a farmer owes even Rs 1000, the government pulls him to the jails and locks him up till he coughs up all the money and here the court has given a decision that the company owes over 3 crores and the government officials did not take any action. Even the media did not mention about it. And when we protested about it saying that we will not leave the company alone, then they went to high court. Even the high court gave a similar decision that they have to pay the amount they owe. And if you cannot pay the whole amount in one go then you can pay it in 3 installments. They paid the 1st installment of 1 crore 45 lakhs and before the next two installments they managed to get a stay order from the supreme court and the matter is still unresolved.

And the Gram Sabha land that they are occupying illegally the court has sent a decision asking them to vacate it but no action has been taken. If this was done by a poor person they would have got a bulldozer and would have broken his building. But they are not able to do anything against the company.

The fourth issue that the company provides employment to local people. The company had claimed that all the local people would get jobs and that 75 % of the employees will be local residents. But how many of them are permanent?? Not even one. They are all on a maximum of 90 day contract. And they do not even consider them as their employees. Every one is on the contract basis. And the 50-60 permanent employees are from other states like Haryana, Bihar etc. So even this is a lie that they provide jobs to local people.

And in fact the small scale businesses that existed of selling nimbu pani, lassi or fruit juices, they all have been destroyed. SO where have they given the jobs? They are fooling the people under the name of giving employment. So when the workers protested against this and said that you promised us permanent jobs and we deserve to get those. The workers stop working in the factory and the factory had closed down completely. Do you know what coke did?? It said if you don’t want to work that’s fine we will get worker from outside and they got the workers to enter the company from behind and start working. And the old workers were protesting in the front of the company. And the 2 sets of workers started fighting against each other. Even today 13 people are falsely accused in cases and they cannot come within 300 mi of the company. Some of the workers have their houses and lands within those 300 mi. An American company tells us that we cannot enter our own homes!! And how is this democracy that we cannot enter our own lands. So our struggle is also based on this issue that this company is unethical and a liar. And the company does not produce anything that the normal person needs. What is the necessity of coca cola in our country? We are not a thirsty bunch, there is water for us everywhere. And in summer there are local drinks available that quench the heat. They are forcing us to use this product. We don’t even want it but it is being put in our heads that we need to use these products. And look at the funny thing. When we say that the product contains pesticide and hence it is harmful for our health so no one should drink it, what does Coca Cola say?? Even Liquor is mentioned that it is harmful for health, even on cigarettes it is mentioned that it is harmful for health, but what difference does it make. People still use these products. So what difference does it make?

But, the thing is such that when a normal person drinks alcohol or smokes cigarette, the society does not consider it appropriate. You might consume liquor but you never want your kids to drink it. The same is true with cigarette. The society does not respect such individuals. So we tell the company to mention that their product is harmful and they claim that it will not make any difference. And you claim that this is the standard. To drink our desi local drinks is not up to standard but if you drink coke then you have a standard in the society. We have an identity and a quality of life. Just in the lure of the money the film stars and cricket players play with our feelings. I am ashamed and wonder if these people represent the country or these multinational companies!! We definitely admire your skills in the game but you are killing the country. And tell me when do you drink pepsi or coke? When there is drinks break during a cricket game we see that you drink nimbu pani and not coke or pepsi. But you play with our emotions. For a little more money you are exploiting the poor people. You say that you drink coke so you hit a six or that you drink coke/pepsi and that’s why you became a famous actor. So you are diverting our mind. And you put it into our brains that if we drink milk at home we are not a part of the society but if we drink pepsi or coke we will be a part of the society. So we are against that.
If the plant in Mehdiganj is shut down then we will be happy. Coke has tried again and again to hold a dialogue with us. The company says that you are talking about Mehdiganj, we shall close our plant here but promise us that there will be no objection to a plant elsewhere in the country. But we say that we are only talking about saving our water and about our rights. And what is our demand. We do not have any demand from coke. We are demanding from our government that we need to get our rights. The judgment in Plachimada high court decision mentioned that water is a community resource. People are the ones that have a right on the water. The government can protect the water only as a trustee. But along with MNCs if the government also misuses the water, then the society has the right to stop it. Because the government is not involved in making the water. It is a natural resource so it should be in the hands of the people. It should not be under the control of either government or some company. It is the government's responsibility to stop the water from being misused. But even the government is misusing the water and in such cases the government is not above the society. The government is for the society not the other way around.

We are asking for our rights. We are not demanding anything from coke. It is our water and we are protecting it. That is our right, our constitutional right. We will challenge the government. The government is in such a bad state that if there is a Narmada movement or a movement against Enron, the government stands against the people. When has it ever stood for the people? It has never stood for the society. Because the government runs on these companies strength. Today's government runs with the money from these corporations. When we met the president of the UP Congress Party, he just claimed that he couldn't do anything. He accepted that the plant was affecting the community in Mehdiganj and also that Pepsi and Coke are not doing good work in the country. But we also know that it used to be once every 5 years there is the election and these days we have election every 2-3 years. These days the election is won based on money. There used to be a time when people believed in governments. The political parties are not running the election for the common person. Contesting an election keeps getting more expensive and the parties have to raise funds from somewhere. That is where the companies come in. All the government officials and policemen take bribes. We know that the policemen take bribes but who will take action against him?The minister can't take action because he has to save his seat. But the minister said one good thing. If anyone can stop all this it is the people. The society which is affected by it can stop it.

Now consider the case of this accountant in a government hospital. How much is his salary? He says it is Rs 12000 – 14000 per month. And then he says he gets some 10000-12000 from “other” sources. When I asked him how that happens , he said he maintains the register and knows that the doctor never visits many villages but we still need to show his cases in the villages. He has to show how many kids were given shots etc. Otherwise the doctor will not be paid. They anyways all work for private hospitals, but they still have to show cases. So, all false cases are shown. And I get paid to show those false cases. Who should we complain about this? All the higher officials are involved in it too. If the villages Pradhan asks us to take action against him where will we go?? To the BDO . The BDO himself takes bribes.

Interview with Nandlal by Sanjeev and Anita