Land Disputes & Lack of Industry: Can Odisha Jobs Crisis Hurt BJD?

As per the leaked National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) report on jobs data in 2017-18, unemployment in Odisha was at a peak of 7.1 percent, one whole percentage point higher than the national average.Biju Janata Dal’s Naveen Patnaik, who has held on to the chief minister’s chair for the last 19 years, has been unable to resolve the state’s employment divide, with thousands of youngsters continuing to migrate to neighbouring states like Andhra Pradesh in the search for jobs.Too caught up to read the story? Listen to it here: The state government’s high-profile deal with POSCO, the South Korean steel manufacturer, had been billed to be India’s largest FDI deal at the time it was signed in 2005. But the 12 billion USD investment project (52,000 crores) did not eventually see the light of day when after 12 long years of local resistance and regulatory hurdles, the South Korean giant officially withdrew from the state and surrendered the controversial land.Two years after the 2017 exit, we visit the now desolate site in Odisha’s Jagatsinghpur district, and speak to locals about the decade of resistance, the woes of unemployment and the status of their land today. The region votes simultaneously for the next Assembly and Lok Sabha representatives on 29 April, in the fourth phase of the general election. Can the jobs crisis hurt the ruling BJD in the ongoing elections?PM Modi Slams CM Naveen Patnaik at a Rally in Odisha Of Paan and POSCOIn Gobindpur village in Jagatsinghpur, we meet 43-year-old Prakash Jena, a betel cultivator and a member of the Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti, the people’s movement against POSCO.“In Delhi, if you say Benarasi paan, this is what you get. The paan is actually from here. The betel leaves are from here.”Prakash JenaPrakash is one of hundreds of people who cultivated betel on what was officially government land. “Yes, my kheti of 2 acres was on land owned by the government. We've done this for generations, cultivated this land here. But then, the police came and destroyed our betel vineyards in 2013. I had 2 acres. They tore it all down and said that they have taken control of the land. Why did they destroy our vineyards when the company wasn't even going to work here eventually? Why did they destroy it first? The government only cared for the company's concerns, not the people's. They took away our income and our means of livelihood, and the company they took it away for didn't even set up here.”Prakash takes us to the now desolate area where the betel vineyards were cleared for the POSCO site, which was never to be.Farmers Defeat POSCO Steel, Turn to Reclaim Betel Leaf Economy Setting up their vineyards elsewhere has been difficult. “The compensation received wasn’t enough. I need more than two lakh rupees just to set up the vineyard again. Buy the bamboo, level the ground, set up the roof, plastic and wires to make the structure, farm labourers to do the work, nets to protect the vineyard – to do all of this, you need to spend around two-and-a-half lakhs. The quality at the new place is not as good as the one where our vineyards were destroyed.”Does he ever feel like going back to the old place and starting over there again? Prakash shakes his head, “No, there is a fear of police cases against us again. 31 cases were filed against me during the anti-POSCO agitation. I was imprisoned for eight months and 14 days in 2009.”Congress’ Lost Opportunity in Odisha?Sitting in betel cultivator Prakash Jena’s shack, we are joined by 33-year-old Tunna Baral, another local and fellow betel grower who was part of the agitation against POSCO. Both Prakash and Tunna say that they will vote against the BJD and choose the Congress instead.Prakash adds, “The Congress supported the protest, but only through lip service, they did nothing concrete. They came once, voiced support and left. Khare nahi hote logon ke saath. (They don’t stand with the people.)”Tunna chimes in, “Like in West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee went herself and stood with the people of Singur and Nandigram.” Within a couple of years of those protests, Mamata had managed to dislodge the 34-year-long run of the Left Front in Bengal, storming to power in the Assembly polls of 2011.Jena agrees, “If the Congress had done similarly here, they could have come to power in 2009 itself. If not, in 2014. Here it’s been 19 years of BJD being in power, there it was much longer, 34 years of uninterrupted Left rule.”The Congress was last in power in the state between 1995 and 2000, after which Naveen Patnaik’s Biju Janata Dal took over. The BJD has emerged victorious in the last four Assembly elections. For its first two terms, it forged an alliance with the BJP. But since 2009, the party has swept the polls on its own.So, did the Congress lose out on a big opportunity to revive its prospects in the eastern state by not helming the agitation against POSCO? Could having joined the protests strongly and effectively have turned the party’s fortunes in Odisha, akin to the rise of Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress in neighbouring Bengal?Bengal Polls: The Quint Visits Nandigram, 9 Years After the PogromHow BJD Retained Its PopularityAnadicharan Rout is a retired government school teacher who lives in the village of Nuagan, close to the POSCO site. Since 2008, he served as the President of the United Action Committee, a group that had been set up to galvanise support for the POSCO project among the locals.Anadicharan, now 75 years old, had his allegiances clear. He is former BJD minister Dr Damodar Rout’s brother-in-law. Damodar Rout was recently expelled from the BJD by Naveen Patnaik and has since jumped ship to the BJP.But in the days of the POSCO agitation, Damodar Rout and his brother-in-law were working to ensure that the POSCO agitation gets quelled. But how then did the BJD manage to retain its popularity in the region?Anadicharan explains, “POSCO was separate, and party was separate. There were many BJD supporters who were backing the agitation, but still voted for BJD. We ensured that the anger was not directed at the party, but at the company. No BJD people were arrested, only communist supporters were arrested. Cases were only raised against the communist people.”With a weak opposition, a counter-committee raising support for the project, and a strategy of directing residual disaffection away from the government and towards the company, the BJD held on to its popularity and is considered the front-runner in the region even in the ongoing polls.Educated and UnemployedIn the village of Nuagan, we meet 53-year-old Ramesh Chandra Rout, a cultivator of paddy and betel.Ramesh has a 24-year-old son and a daughter a year younger. Despite their college degrees, both youngsters are currently unemployed, and have been desperately looking for jobs since more than a year.Ramesh’s son Rameshwar graduated in Mechanical Engineering in 2017, from Centurion University on the outskirts of Bhubaneswar. He hasn’t landed a single job yet. Ramesh rues, “I made my son do mechanical engineering so that he could get a job here once the company (POSCO) came. But then, the company didn't come and now he can't even find a job. He is in Bhubaneswar, unsuccessfully looking for employment.”Rameshwar’s desperation has driven him to undertake coaching classes in “job interview training” so that he can give better interviews. The costs of that training too has to be borne by his father Ramesh.Ramesh’s daughter, 23-year-old Rasheshwari Rout, isn’t any luckier. She completed her BSc degree in 2018, from the Swami Vivekananda Mahavidyalaya in Jagatsinghpur. Standing outside her home in Nuagan, she tells us, “I have been trying but I haven't got a job either.”Jobs Nahi Hai Toh Kya, Surgical Strike Kiya Na: Fans at Modi RallyUnfortunately, the situation in the Rout home is not an uncommon one. Advocate Natwar Swain, 60, tells us about his 27-year-old daughter Manisha, who graduated in civil engineering in 2015. “She has been unemployed since 2017, and is still searching for jobs in Bhubaneswar. For two years, her efforts have come of no avail.”Natwar believes the POSCO project was a missed opportunity and directs his frustration at the anti-POSCO protesters.“Industry was supposed to come, that would have provided jobs, the local economy would have improved, but they didn’t manage to come. Despite them being a minority, it was because of the people who protested that industry could not come here. If the JSW project happens now, then area ka development ho jayega (there will be development in the area).”Natwar SwainBut Prakash Jena disagrees, “There is an IOCL plant that has been built in neighbouring Paradeep, but hardly any locals have got employment there. POSCO too was going to be a company heavily reliant on machinery not manpower, and it wouldn't have provided employment to locals. Yes, the state government hasn't been able to provide jobs in Odisha but taking away our fertile land, which yielded good returns for growing betel, and giving it away to a company that won’t help us or provide jobs, isn’t the solution.”“They wanted this place as it is close to the sea, but even if they selected a place slightly further away from sea, how much would they have lost? Only their profits would have reduced slightly. Why give the company whatever they want, and that too at our expense?”Prakash JenaFrom POSCO to JSW: Another Round of Protests Soon?The land acquired for, and then foregone by, POSCO has now been allotted to Sajjan Jindal-led JSW Steel, which is slated to build a 12 million tonne mega steel plant at the site. The company has pledged Rs 550 billion investment on the project and attendant infrastructure – a captive power plant, a slurry pipeline and pellet unit.Tunna Baral says, “Now, we hear that Jindal will take this land. We are gearing up for another round of protests.” But Prakash Jena doesn’t sound too enthused. “I am a bit fearful of the future – of having to do the rounds of court once again.”Have either of them ever thought of leaving the place and settling elsewhere? Almost in unison, they respond, “No, no. Where will we go?”They narrate a recent incident when a group of people came to the deserted POSCO site to conduct tests on the soil. “They told us they are from JSW. They had come with equipment, and had set up a small camp to test the soil. We reached there and told them clearly, “We won't beat you, you're just working for your crorepati exploitative employer. Leave in 15 minutes.” They removed their equipment hurriedly and left within an hour.”Naveen Patnaik’s Failed Efforts to Woo Industry“Due to the land disputes and the POSCO fracas, the Naveen Patnaik government has failed in its efforts to get industry to Odisha. But now, the government is trying to woo industry – but is being unable to convince big industrialists to invest because of the state’s past record.”Anadicharan RoutAnadicharan’s loyalties switched to the BJP when his brother-in-law joined the party. Speaking critically of the Odisha CM, he remarks, “The government is not providing jobs, so young people are going to other states. From Naveen Patnaik's own constituency Hinjili, a lot of youngsters are migrating elsewhere in the search for employment.”The pro-POSCO United Action Committee led by Anadicharan claimed to have negotiated with POSCO that all 3,000 families in the three affected gram panchayats be given employment once the project began. Anadicharan says, “If JSW comes, they will be under pressure to fulfil similar conditions of employing locals, otherwise the people may agitate again.”BJP Silent on DeMo & Smart Cities, Sambit Patra Deflects QuestionsAs unemployment in Odisha remains high, and industries continue to give a cold shoulder to the state, how long will it be before the jobs crisis starts seriously denting the electoral prospects of the BJD? Naveen Patnaik, and his supporters on the ground, seem certain that it won’t be this election season.In 2014, with a vote share of 43.4 percent, the BJD had swept the Assembly election, winning 117 out of the 147 Assembly seats. The party had also won 20 of the 21 Lok Sabha seats. In comparison, Congress had polled 25.7 percent of the votes, and BJP came in third with 18 percent of the vote share and only 10 MLAs.This time though, the BJP is hoping that the Congress’ base in the state will have weakened and the anti-BJD vote will consolidate behind Modi’s plank of nationalism and his promise of ushering industrial growth. And even though the Modi regime hasn’t covered itself in glory on the issue of generating employment across India in the last five years, the BJP is banking on its promise of providing jobs to boost a sentiment of anti-incumbency against a popular BJD government in Odisha.Hundreds of Empty Chairs While Modi Addresses Rally in Bhubaneswar

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Land Disputes & Lack of Industry: Can Odisha Jobs Crisis Hurt BJD?

Leaked NSSO report (2017-18) pegs unemployment in Odisha at 7.1%, one percentage point higher than national average.

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Topics: Bharatiya Janata Party odisha Naveen Patnaik