You can't tear the Constitution apart for growth: V Kishore Chandra Deo

V Kishore Chandra Deo is Union cabinet minister for tribal affairs and panchayati raj. With a new commission for Scheduled Areas and Scheduled Tribes established, Deo spoke with TNN about its urgency, equity for tribals — and why he thinks constitutional safeguards are being blown to the winds:


What drives this commission?

I found it was time to have a new committee, both looking into past recommendations and integrating new challenges facing tribals. Amongst these is the threat of mining, with tribals thrown off their lands and deprived of traditional livelihoods or security. This is happening in state after state. There should be a permanent solution, not this fire-fighting approach. I hope this committee helps us find good ideas towards this.

Are your colleagues more open to the complexity of the tribal issue now?

Well, they weren't closed to it earlier but i think growth concerned many. I'm not against growth — but i'm talking of inclusive growth, development which takes along the most marginalised. The PM's also keen on this over growth at someone else's expense.

People living in tribal areas for centuries enjoy constitutional safeguards. What's been troubling me is the manner in which these constitutional safeguards were being blown to the winds, all for reasons of development or growth as said by state governments and others — but you can't tear the Constitution apart for the sake of development and growth. This has been bothering me a lot.

Take Odisha where the Orissa Mining Corporation signed an MoU with Vedanta. The OMC is not a government arm. The government owns its shares. Hence, the government gave the lease to that company. Fair enough — but having got the leases being an entirely government-owned company, do they have the right or authority to flout constitutional safeguards? After all, Vedanta has no locus standi in a Schedule Five area where non-scheduled tribes cannot buy or lease land.

The Supreme Court's directed the ministry of tribal affairs to oversee gram sabha meetings on Vedanta. The state government said there'll be just 12 gram sabhas. My ministry said all the gram sabhas should be heard. The law ministry concurred with us but even if all the gram sabhas had said Niyamgiri was of no spiritual import — that's been rejected by 11, by the way — would that nullify an article of the Constitution?

But the Odisha chief minister pitches inclusive development — your response?

I would tell him that after all, he and i have taken our oath by the Constitution of India. The least we can do is to respect the Constitution because that's the foundation on which our republic is built. If you give the Constitution the go-by, your republic will be under stress.

Schedule Five are rules and provisions of Article 244 of the Constitution — to disregard that would be to disregard the Constitution. And if this can happen to one article of the Constitution, it can happen to any other part also.

How can there be equitable growth for tribals?

I'm not saying mineral reso-urces should lie unused forever. Why can't you form registered cooperatives in the name of tribals, with companies mining resources, deducting costs and taxes and giving the tribals the minerals' market value?

As an industrialist, if you want bauxite or iron ore, you're going to buy it from somewhere — so what's your problem if that money goes to the poor people who've actually owned that land for centuries?