New Delhi: A new report has revealed that mining and oil giant Vedanta lobbied the Indian government during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic to weaken certain environmental regulations – and the government complied, without any public consultation.While on the global stage India – and the Modi government – claim to be on board with the focus on more rigid environmental laws, given the realities of climate change, the facts brought out by this report paint a different picture.The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) has found that among other changes, Vedanta was leading the way in pushing the government to allow mining companies to produce up to 50% more without requiring new environmental approvals.This push, according to the OCCRP, began in 2021 when Vedanta Resources Ltd chairman Anil Agarwal wrote to environment minister Prakash Javadekar, saying making these changes would add “impetus” to India’s “rapid” economic recovery after the pandemic-related slowdown.“Apart from immediately boosting production and economic growth, this will generate huge revenue for the Government and create massive jobs,” Agarwal reportedly said in his letter. He also said that allowing companies to produce 50% more without applying for further environmental clearance could be done through “a simple notification”.Javadekar, according to the report, marked this letter “VIMP” or very important, and told the secretary of his ministry and the director general of forestry to “discuss [the] policy issue”.After Agarwal’s letter to Javadekar, Vedanta’s chief executive Sunil Duggal wrote directly to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying he could “boost the economic engine immediately” by doing away with the existing environmental clearance model. Modi’s office forwarded this letter to the environment secretary.The proposal was met with some internal opposition, OCCRP reports. “Minutes from one meeting in July show officials feared loosening the rules would break the law, and give a free pass to unrestrained mining in ecologically sensitive areas. A summary of an internal meeting by the Joint Expert Appraisal Committee — made up of ministry officials and mining experts — noted similar concerns, and said any increase in mining production should require some form of public consultation,” the report states.In early 2022, the changes Agarwal had asked for would become a reality. “Though the head of a major industry lobby group and India’s mining secretary also pressed for the rules to be loosened, internal documents and government sources suggest Vedanta’s lobbying was key. The environment ministry then changed the regulations by publishing an office memo — meant to be used for inter-office communication — on its website,” the OCCRP states.“Experts say this type of backroom lobbying allows powerful people close to India’s government to shape policies in their favor, even if they hurt local communities and the environment. By modifying important regulations using instruments like office memos, without any public debate, the government may also have skirted the law, according to a study of pandemic-era regulatory changes by the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy,” the report continues.OCCRP reports that it obtained thousands of documents through RTI requests, which “show government officials tailored the rules in line with requests made by the industry, and in particular Vedanta”.“It is a clear case of corporate capture of environmental governance,” environmental lawyer Ritwick Dutta told OCCRP. “Over the last few years, it is clear that most changes in environmental laws and policies have been largely guided in terms of the economic benefit it would bring to certain corporate entities or sectors.”‘Lobbying’ is not recognised in India, and so there are no regulations governing this particular kind of relationship between the government and corporate houses.In its response to OCCRP, Vedanta said it is “one of the leading natural resources organizations in India” and the company operated “with an objective of import substitution by enhancing domestic production in a sustainable manner”.“In view of the same, continuous representations are submitted for consideration to the Government in the best interest of national development and India’s march towards self-reliance in natural resources,” the company spokesperson continued.Neither the prime minister’s office nor the current or former environment minister responded to OCCRP’s requests for comments.Agarwal has been a vocal supporter of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party, and said in the past that Modi inspires him and his decisions. OCCRP writes that contribution reports analysed by the group show that two Vedanta-linked trusts alone “donated $6.16 million to the party [BJP] between 2016 and 2020”.But the connections of Vedanta and its political funding run deeper.When the Modi government in 2016 proposed to amend the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), 1976, retrospectively, it was seen as a move to benefit the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress held guilty by the Delhi high court for receiving foreign funds from two subsidiaries of Vedanta, a London-based mining company.The Representation of the People Act and the FCRA bar political parties from receiving foreign funds, but BJP went ahead to make an exception for itself, retrospectively. The government amended FCRA controversially, through the Finance Bill route, allowing foreign-origin companies to finance non-governmental organisations and clearing the way for donations to political parties by changing the definition of “foreign companies”.The Delhi High Court in 2014 had held both the BJP and Congress parties guilty of violating FCRA norms for accepting donations from Vedanta. The Wire reported on November 30, 2016 on the BJP and Congress withdrawing their respective appeals in the Supreme Court against the Delhi high court verdict that held them guilty, and the anger amongst election watchdogs and activists.
