NEWSMAKER: A Raja

Still in the wilderness

A Raja

Dayanidhi Maran might not have been particularly happy to see a junior colleague get his ministry but environmentalists all over India sent up a grateful prayer when minister for environment and forests (MEF), A Raja, was moved from the ministry. The reason ? Very little has moved in the MEF since Raja took charge in 2004.

Only the most charitable would say this was possibly because Raja could not comprehend the critical centrality of MEF in a rapidly industrialising society. Environmentalists say there is no earthly reason why the report of the Swaminathan Committee set up to examine the issue of Coastal Regulation Zone should continue to be held in abeyance by the MEF.

The Central Pollution Control Board, the most important monitoring authority over industry from the environmental point of view, has been headless for over two years.

In 2004, environmental NGOs launched a signature campaign and wrote letters to the Prime Minister and President charging the government with systematically undermining the importance of environmental issues in decision-making, and paying little or no attention to Environment Impact Assessment reports.

Naming the MEF, these organisations said that it had become a clearing agency for unsustainable commercial activities, giving clearance to dams, mines, roads, ports, industries and other projects, without adequate environmental clearances.

The net result has been that not a single mining project, for instance, which has been cleared- even for Impact Assessment, has been able to start functioning because it has been barricaded by the people for fear it would destroy their livelihood. The MEF had, under previous ministers including Kamal Nath, been able to bridge differences between industry and locals. But under Raja, environmentalists say, nothing has moved.

However, for the DMK's political project, Raja is crucial. For one thing, he belongs to Perambalur, near Trichy, which is right in the middle of the Vanniyar caste belt. For the DMK, having a foothold in an area controlled by the Vanniyar-dominated Pattali Makkal Katchi, is absolutely crucial. Raja is also a Dalit and important for that reason.

But the unkindest cut of all, especially for Dayanidhi Maran, must be that it was his father Murasoli, a DMK visionary, who picked up and groomed Raja.

It was on Murasoli Maran's recommendation that when the DMK was part of the NDA, Raja was made junior minister for the ministries of health and family welfare and rural development between October 1999 and December 2003.

Unlike Dayanidhi, Raja has little or no international exposure. There is a vague impression in the DMK that he was an efficient environment minister "" he certainly contributed to the party in myriad ways.

But what is at a premium in the DMK right now is loyalty, not efficiency. And Karunanidhi has no reason to doubt Raja's fealty. Raja will do what he is told, say DMK insiders. If that means dismantling Dayanidhi Maran's legacy, so be it.