I came to know from a post in Facebook that a huge police operation has been carried out in Gobindpur in Orissa on 4th July 2013 to forcibly oust the people resisting acquisition of their land for the proposed South Korean Pohan Iron and Steel Company (POSCO) Steel Plant project. The police were merciless and beat up women and children brutally as shown in the grainy picture below taken with a mobile phone and somehow sent across secretly from the struggle zone given the total news black out in which the operation was carried out.
Over the eight years of their valiant struggle the villagers of Gobindpur and adjoining Panchayats were able to ward off the power of the State with consistent support from all over India and abroad. On many occasions before the police have tried to evict the farmers but have had to withdraw in the face of stiff resistance from the people and especially the women and children which was immediately publicised in the media. This time, however, the State prevented any media attention and cordoned off the area and unleashed the onslaught without any notice and released a press note after the operation blandly saying the land acquisition process for the steel plant had been completed.
There is an uncanny silence in the media as even generally sympathetic magazines like Tehelka have not reported this brutality despite having been apprised of it by the supporters of the Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti. The State has played its cards well over the past few months. Using a carrot and stick policy it has weaned away many of the people who were initially against the project and then used police brutality to evict the rest while maintaining a media blackout and also possibly effecting a media buyout.
This just shows how difficult it is in the present context to carry out movements against the State's policy of implementing mega projects to favour global capital even if they have been shown to be of little long term benefit to the people of the country. The principle of might is right prevails to the exclusion of all considerations of social and economic justice and environmental sustainability. What is striking and sobering is that the mass media will not support mass movements beyond a point. Its ultimately a mug's game. The anti-POSCO struggle which with its longevity and militancy had been an inspiration for many of us fighting in the field for justice will remain a beacon if only a sobering one.
There is an uncanny silence in the media as even generally sympathetic magazines like Tehelka have not reported this brutality despite having been apprised of it by the supporters of the Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti. The State has played its cards well over the past few months. Using a carrot and stick policy it has weaned away many of the people who were initially against the project and then used police brutality to evict the rest while maintaining a media blackout and also possibly effecting a media buyout.
This just shows how difficult it is in the present context to carry out movements against the State's policy of implementing mega projects to favour global capital even if they have been shown to be of little long term benefit to the people of the country. The principle of might is right prevails to the exclusion of all considerations of social and economic justice and environmental sustainability. What is striking and sobering is that the mass media will not support mass movements beyond a point. Its ultimately a mug's game. The anti-POSCO struggle which with its longevity and militancy had been an inspiration for many of us fighting in the field for justice will remain a beacon if only a sobering one.
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