[Reader-list] Mining Company's PR Campaign Backfires in India

[asit das]

Date: 25 April 2012
Subject: Mining Company's PR Campaign Backfires in India



Mining Company's PR Campaign Backfires in India -
Bloomberg<http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-24/mining-company-s-pr-campaign-backfires-in-india.html>


Mining Company's PR Campaign Backfires in India
By Chandrahas Choudhury  Apr 25, 2012 3:59 AM GMT+0530 Tue Apr 24 22:29:53
GMT 2012

On a recent visit to Bhubaneswar, the capital of the large eastern state of
Odisha <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orissa>, I found the airport plastered
with advertisements and slogans expressing the nurturing, socially
conscious side -- caring for the poor, growth with inclusive values,
creating happiness -- of the many steel and aluminum
companies<http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/orissa-diverts-12000-ha-forest-land-for-mining-industries/468443/>that
have major operations in one of India's poorest but most mineral-rich
and business-friendly states.

The most prominent voice in this cluster belonged to
Vedanta<http://www.vedantaresources.com/>,
a London Stock Exchange-listed "globally diversified natural resources
group with wide-ranging interests in aluminium, copper, zinc, lead,
silver, iron
ore <http://topics.bloomberg.com/iron-ore/>, oil and gas and power," headed
by Anil Agarwal<http://www.forbes.com/lists/2011/77/india-billionaires-11_Anil-Agarwal_WDNS.html>,
one of India's richest and most controversial businessmen. Vedanta's main
interest in Odisha is represented by its subsidiary company Vedanta
Aluminium <http://www.vedantaaluminium.com/>, which has over the last
decade set up, in the face of concerted opposition from tribal
groups<http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/oct/12/vedanta-versus-the-villagers>,
an alumina refinery in the district of
Lanjigarh<http://lanjigarhproject.vedantaaluminium.com/lanjigarh-project.htm>,
the most bauxite-rich area of a state that has over half of
India<http://topics.bloomberg.com/india/>'s
reserves of that mineral. A Vedanta ad at the airport declared that
"Education is the backbone of a rising community," and announced, somewhat
improbably, that the company was providing "quality education to all local
children across [the districts of] Lanjigarh and Jharsuguda."

This month, Vedanta also put up on
YouTube<http://www.youtube.com/user/VedantaGroup/videos>the last
installment of a massive advertising and public-relations campaign
it launched at the beginning of the year called "Creating
Happiness<http://www.creatinghappiness.in/index.html>."
The hub of the campaign was a 90-second ad
film<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWOwat5FO00>widely played on
Indian television this year, telling the story of a girl
named Binno in a village in the state of Rajasthan. Made by one of India's
most celebrated ad filmmakers, Piyush
Pandey<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piyush_Pandey>of Ogilvy
& Mather <http://topics.bloomberg.com/ogilvy-%26-mather/> India, the film
supplies touching scenes from the lives of Binno -- who attends a school
supported by Vedanta -- and her brothers. It is accompanied by commentary
from a somewhat patronizing male voice asking if the girl's parents had
access to the same opportunities, and demonstrating by this comparison that
the company was "creating happiness."

Alongside the Binno film, the company also announced that it was sponsoring
a Creating Happiness Film
Competition<http://www.creatinghappiness.in/index.html>that would
invite "film students across the country to visit any of the 550
villages where we have a presence, and find their own Binno." In a piece
called "Vedanta touches souls with 'Creating
Happiness',<http://www.exchange4media.com/45190_vedanta-touches-souls-with-%E2%80%98creating-happiness%E2%80%99.html>"
the news platform Exchange4media reported:

In an effort to make people aware of the social side of their existence,
Vedanta Group [...] has unveiled its first ever national corporate campaign
under the platform of ‘Creating Happiness’, sharing with people the stories
of hope, change, success and a better future. Vedanta Chairman Anil
Agarwal’s vision of contributing to building sustainable communities and
integrating sustainability as a core part of the business is at the heart
of this campaign. [....]

Talking to exchange4media about the campaign, Piyush Pandey, Executive
Chairman, O&M, said, “Beyond business, Vedanta is doing extensive work for
sustainable development. We wanted it to be as realistic as possible unlike
an ad, and thus we have shown real people with real stories. Binno, the
main face of the campaign, is so amazingly charming. Her true story, with
that charm, emotion, sentiment and happiness, will inspire many.” [...]

Adding to the idea of inspiring others, Pandey said, “You get inspired when
you see that there is so much being done. It inspires and moves me. I feel
that I may start small, but I can make a difference. Large brands are not
made in the head, but heart, that is why when you take the softer side and
touch people, people remember you.”

Fair enough, but there were some inconvenient facts that Pandey omitted to
mention, as did most of the media channels that ran the advertisements. The
missing facts point to a yawning gulf between the kind of information
supplied by advertising, and the kind of information generated by
investigative journalism, regulatory bodies, or even states. Were one to
place these facts alongside the company's campaign, it would appear that
Vedanta is less the leader in sustainable development and social
responsibility in India's universe of corporations, and more the black
sheep<http://forbesindia.com/printcontent/12382>of that world. It
stands accused of habitually forging ahead with its
mining and quarrying operations before the requisite permissions have been
granted, and of dividing and
destroying<http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/oct/12/vedanta-versus-the-villagers>local
economies and fragile ecosystems, such as those in the hills
of Niyamgiri in
Lanjigarh<http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/avatar-tribe-defeats-vedanta/1/110160.html>,
Odisha, with its economic might and ability to influence state policy.

To cite only a small number of such inconvenient truths that muddy the
company's narrative: In August 2010, India's then-minister for environment
and forests, Jairam Ramesh <http://topics.bloomberg.com/jairam-ramesh/>,
canceled<http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-24/vedanta-s-bauxite-mine-rejected-by-india-hampering-8-billion-investment.html>Vedanta
Alumina's clearances to mine bauxite in the Niyamgiri hills of
Odisha. At that time, the Times of
India<http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/Vedanta-mines-illegal-must-be-shut-down-Green-panel/articleshow/6321872.cms>reported:

Mining giant Vedanta
<http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/Vedanta>consistently
violated several laws in bauxite mining at Niyamgiri,
encroached upon government land, got clearances on the basis of false
information and illegally built its aluminium refinery at Lanjigarh,
Orissa<http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/Orissa>.
As the company engaged in these violations, the Orissa government colluded
with it and the Centre turned a blind eye. These are some of the findings
of the four-member N C Saxena
committee<http://moef.nic.in/downloads/public-information/Saxena_Vedanta.pdf>,
which on Monday recommended that the company not be allowed to mine in the
hills that are the abode of the Dongaria Kondh and Kutia Kondh tribes in
Orissa.

The no-holds-barred indictment of the state and private sector in the $1.7
billion project brings out the short shrift given to concerns about tribal
rights and environmental protection. It is significant also because it
underlines the changed sensibilities of the government towards the issues
against the backdrop of Left-wing
extremism<http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-04-07/deadliest-maoist-attack-highlights-india-challenge-for-nmdc-arcelormittal.html>and
why Naxalites are finding it easy to influence alienated tribal belts.

And in July 2010, Peter
Popham<http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/peter-popham/peter-popham-vedantas-very-embarrassing-silence-2039015.html>reported
from Vedanta's annual general meeting in
London <http://topics.bloomberg.com/london/>:

Nyamgiri is regarded as a god by the Dongria Kondh tribe that lives on it,
so for them and their supporters, tearing the peak of the mountain apart
for bauxite would be sacrilege. In their effort to spike this argument,
this year the company rolled out the top manager at the company's nearby
bauxite refinery, Mukesh Kumar, who claimed that the tribe no longer
worship the mountain and welcome the mine's arrival. Music to shareholders'
ears – but was it true?

This was the point seized on by Samarendra
Das<http://www.sacw.net/article1237.html>,
an Indian research scholar and activist from Orissa, who rose from his seat
to ask Mr Kumar a simple question: by what name do the Dongria Kondh refer
to Nyamgiri, their holy mountain? The silence was deafening – until filled
by the boos and catcalls of the activist-shareholders at the meeting, which
from that point onwards went down hill. [...]

Dr. Felix Padel<http://www.indianexpress.com/news/out-of-this-earth/871454/0>,
the anthropologist who happens to be Darwin's great-grandson [...] was
among the shareholder-activists witnessing Vedanta's discomfiture this
week. Padel has lived among the tribals of Orissa for years, and in his new
book, Out of this
Earth<http://www.amazon.com/Out-this-Earth-Adivasis-Aluminium/dp/8125038671>,
co-authored with Samarendra Das and launched in London last night, the
techniques by which mining giants set about breaking the resistance of
tribal people who happen to be in their way through fraud, forcible
occupation, corruption and intimidation, are documented in painstaking
detail.

>From these testimonies it seems clear that one doesn't have to be a
left-wing revolutionary (opponents of Odisha's huge mining projects are
routinely tarred as "Maoists" by the government) or a crusader against big
business to have serious doubts about Vedanta's approach to law, ethics,
transparency and due process. Indeed, it isn't clear that at a time when
the world, and especially developing economies, need vast quantities of
aluminum and steel, it is realistic to insist (as Samarendra
Das<http://www.sacw.net/article1237.html>does in an essay and the
prominent Indian writer Arundhati Roy does in her
recent book on left-wing extremism, governments and mining in India, "Walking
With The Comrades<http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/walking-with-the-comrades-by-arundhati-roy/2011/11/07/gIQAIPR2yO_story.html>")
that states and societies can agree to "leave the bauxite in the mountain"
for good.

Even so, it's one thing to accept that mining is a necessary reality. It's
quite another to accept the reality of Vedanta's collusion with the
government of Odisha to try and pay off tribals to vacate mineral-rich land
to generate vast profits. Those profits are only derived from the
development of one of India's poorest states. The company then uses the
thin gruel of its own corporate social responsibility measures to generate
the material for PR campaigns such as the one that swamped India's
television screens in January. As Padmaja Shaw wrote last month in the
media-analysis website The Hoot, in a piece called "Creating
Happiness<http://www.thehoot.org/web/home/story.php?storyid=5777&pg=1&mod=1&sectionId=19>?"
democracy is reduced to a farce when capital-rich entities are allowed to
control the message on a matter of wide-ranging importance merely because
they have the cash to control the medium:

Very little debate has been allowed in the mainstream media on why the
mining enterprise is suddenly the private property of corporations to
exploit and profit from national wealth while brutalising the very people
in whose name this is supposed to be happening.

Corporate entities further compound the absence of debate on this reality
by buying the best of advertising talent to promote an idyllic image of
themselves as messiahs of liberation and transformation for the tribal
people, specially using images of children. [...] The advertising industry
in India boasts of some of the world’s best creative minds. It is not an
industry that we can accuse of being unaware of the reality in India. When
advertising of dubious nature shows up on the media, it is, therefore,
roundly condemned. [...]

It is somewhat disheartening to see people such as Piyush Pandey, Chairman
of Ogilvy & Mather, and renowned filmmaker Shyam Benegal associate
themselves as jury with a film festival, Creating Happiness, that Vedanta
has launched.

The outrage<http://www.firstpost.com/india/piyush-pandey-and-the-vedanta-open-letter-221531.html>generated
by the ad campaign meant that Benegal and the actress Gul Panag pulled
out<http://www.telegraphindia.com/1120301/jsp/odisha/story_15196796.jsp#.T5ZZprPJeNY>of
the Vedanta jury, leaving Pandey as the sole judge. After the student
films had been made, Aman Sethi and Priscilla
Jebaraj<http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/article2964322.ece>reported
in the Hindu:

Vedanta's “Creating Happiness” campaign, according to company spokesperson
Senjam Raj Sekhar, is part of an “initiative to tell our side of the
story”; yet the hostile reception on blogs and social-media networks like
Facebook and Twitter highlights the risks of exposing a tightly controlled
corporate message to the anarchy of the internet. [...] Activists have even
started a viral “Faking
Happiness<http://kractivist.wordpress.com/2012/03/13/lets-vote-faking-happiness-spoof-ad-competition-in-reply-to-vedantas-creating-happiness/>”
campaign in an attempt to highlight Vedanta's alleged malpractices. [...]

“We told them do not make a corporate film,” Mr. Sekhar said, “find the
story of either an individual or a family or the entire village or the
community whose lives have changed…so it's not about the programme but
about individuals.”

The films themselves are student productions showcasing a variety of CSR
initiatives such as hospitals, football academies, company run schools,
rural entrepreneurs and anganvadis. Yet, none of the films explore themes
such as ecological damage or the impact of mining on forest communities.
The sole film to address the issue of rehabilitating project-affected
individuals describes Vedanta as a “path-breaking leader of social
upwardness [sic]” that has rescued “the lives of tribals from the darkness
of backwardness.”

Meanwhile, far from the worlds of advertising, PR and industry -- all part
of India's booming post-liberalization New Economy, but also responsible
for currents and narratives that have made the burgeoning middle class
unsympathetic or oblivious to the problems of those beneath them, different
from them, or dissenting from them -- the tribals of Niyamgiri are still
agitating<http://www.tehelka.com/story_main52.asp?filename=Fw170412SACRED.asp>to
keep their sacred mountains unmolested.

(Chandrahas Choudhury, a novelist, is the New Delhi correspondent for the
World View blog. The opinions expressed are his own.)