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The Indian Public Law Initiative Forum is a now defunct non-profit movement which promoted the process of Public Law in India.LAST MONTH's lead interview ...
NEXT MONTH's lead feature ... highlights
Interview on Public Interest Law.
THE WATER WARS.Why is WATER so important that 4 of our 5 awardees are involved in this issue, and the 5th is shortly entering this arena too? We examine how MNCs are looting the groundwater resources of the Indian State! We trace the REAL REASON (TOP SECRET) why heavy metals and radioactive substances were found in Coca-Cola's Bottling Plants recently!!! Why does Colin Gonsalves' Socio-Legal Documentation Centre in Jangpura (Delhi) have a secret cell for Water Issues affecting Indian Villagers? How the proposed improved BIS Standards for water and water products have already been diluted by MNC bottlers, and why the BIS has been bypassed for certfication!!! THIS MONTH on India-PIL :-
we reproduce an article on Corporate Assassins from our private e-group archives.
"Corporate Assassins" ..
don't,
kill FOR your Company ...
they just,
kill YOUR Company !!Who are these Corporate Assassins ?
What are their motives ?
How do they operate ?
Why do they get away ?
When will it be your Company's turn next ?
Where do you turn to if your company is targeted ?The Awardees for "Corporate Assassin of the Year 2003-2004" are:-
- M.C. Mehta, (Categories - Environment, Supreme Court)
- Prashant Bhushan, (Categories - Legal Drafting, Media, Right to Information)
- CSE by Sunita Narain, (Category - Nuisance Value)
- Sarbajit Roy, (Categories - Consumer Protection)
- Colin Gonsalves (Categories - PIL, Public Law, Advocate of the Year)
DISCLAIMER :- Due to the nature of the content on this e-group, the publishers take no responsibility or bear any liability for the same. In the event that any person feels that the content pertaining to them is incorrect, the publishers may examine and rectify their entry after being properly communicated via an e-mail which must be duly acknowledged. These 'Awards' are given gratis on the basis of feedback / polls on our e-group and none of the awardees have solicited this 'Award' which has no cash value.
This e-group tracks India's 5 best known corporate assassins with their 'unauthorised' biography. These assassins are only the ones out in the open. The most successful corporate assassins, however, operate in the shadows of the murky nexus between NGOs, the media, politicians, the underworld and the judiciary.
These operators have caused untold damage to professionally run businesses in India. By stalling the buildings of dams, to planting rumours of pesticides in beverages, opposing consumer friendly telecom companies and privatisation of cable television services, preventing sunset factories from reducing surplus labour and selling off surplus land, and so on. They have prevented industry from expanding or venturing into greenfield areas, and consistently lowered India's image abroad.
The Lawyers
1) M.C.Mehta. India's most publicly known environmental lawyer. Best known for inventing the "Letter PIL". M C Mehta is best known for harassing companies which "pollute" the environment - this includes closing down industries in Delhi, CNG, water pollution, smog in the cities, Shriram Chemicals gas leak, the Taj Mahal controversy, mining near Surajkund, shrimp farming, coastal degradation etc.. the list is endless. M C Mehta's chosen tactics against corporates include harassment in the Supreme Court (his favourite stomping ground) and media exposure. He operates out of the Anand Lok (South Delhi) premises of a Former Foreign Secretary. Since Mehta is so famous, we shall not devote much space here to him. Just type "m c mehta" into any half decent search engine like google or teoma and watch the results roll up.
2) Prashant Bhushan / Medha Patkar. Just think of the Narmada Bachao Andolan Sardar Sarovar Dam controversy and you have this unlikely duo. Bhushan, however, is a darn good lawyer, a jolly decent bloke and son of former Law Minister Shanti Bhushan. When you blend in page 3 celebrities like Arundhati Roy and water baby Nafisa Ali with a rag tag army of tribals and jholawallas you get a perfect High media mix for a story which now seems to be running out of steam. Bhushan is well known for his integrity and willingness to swim against the tide, he has taken on Enron, Cogentrix, Chief Justices of the Supreme Court and so on and his Writs are certainly better drafted generally than Mehta's. However, Bhushan is limited in being only a hired gun and not initiating movements on his own. The "Right to Information" is a pet cause for Prashant Bhushan - in the Satyadev Dubey PIL before the Apex Court - he has asked for the Federal "Freedom of Information Act 2003" to be notified after receiving Presidential Assent.
The Engineers
The "engineers" are the true traitors. Existing in the netherworld between the engineering industry and the law, these operators misuse their insider knowledge of the shortcuts used by Indian industry to keep up with the rest of the world.
3) The late Anil Agarwal / Sunita Narain. Agrawal an engineer from the Indian Institute of Technology, IIT, pioneered the enviromental movement in India. By founding the CSE - Centre for Science and Environment (for which they got land at a throw away price in Tughlakabad Institutional area in South Delhi), they mastered the art of the press conference where they hurl dubious scientific data at their targets. They are usually proved wrong at the end of the day, by which time the story is dead and the damage is done. Sunita Narain, however, is not an engineer or a scientist of any kind - she (Suneeta) is only a B.A. in something. That has not prevented her from being co-author with Agrawal in numerous pseudo-scientific publications (she probably typed and proof read the manuscripts). The latest target of their untiring quest for financing to keep their media circus rolling were the MNC beverage bottlers Coca Cola 'Coke' and Pepsi who were alleged to have unacceptably high levels of pesticides in their products such as Coca-Cola, Coke, Pepsi, Mirinda, Fanta, Kinley, Aquafina etc. which although conforming to the BIS Standards did not conform to International Standards. Since no respectable newspaper bothers to publish their research after the first few days, they have floated their own publications called "Down to Earth" and "Gobar Times" to sling muck at their targets.
4) Sarbajit Roy. Self described as an "ethical engineer" this former weapons designer and engineer from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science Pilani (BITS Pilani) is unique in that he shuns publicity and is a back room operator who sets the Government Regulatory machinery working against his victims. Roy is perceived to be a misdirected individual who invariably loses his crusades, such as when he targeted telcos MTNL and Hutch who got away scot free leaving rival mobile operators such as Reliance Infocom, Tata Indicom having to compound thousands of crores of rupees as penalty to TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India). In his offensive against the imposition of the "Conditional Access System" for cable television or CAS in Delhi he had deviated from his usual "no personal publicity" mode and called a press conference to publicise his first "official" Writ Petition in the Supreme Court which resulted in CAS being repeatedly stalled. STAR TV's MSO Hathway Cable were forced to to file a defamation suit in February 2004 against Sarbajit Roy and 'The Pioneer' newspaper in Mumbai claiming that he had driven them out of business and rendered them unable to pay their contractors hundreds of crores of rupees for Hathway sub standard Humax ND-1000C CAS STBs Set Top Box which Roy had established were liable to explode and did not conform to the Indian BIS Standard. Well plugged into the media who often quote him as "an official source" he is reputed to know workings of bureaucracy well.
5) Colin Gonsalves. An engineer from the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology he studied law at night and went on to represent the labour classes against industry. Like Sarbajit Roy, Colin Gonsalves too is the son of an engineer and they both studied at the best educational institutions of Bombay (Mumbai). Colin Gonsalves is a prolific Public Interest litigator and has organised a vast network of grassroots legal activists into "Socio-Legal Documentation Centres" across the countryside for "combat law". This is a progressive movement to give villagers and other tribals access to the legal system to stall business projects. Gonsalves' Writ on the Right to Food under Article 21 of the Constitution co-authored with Advocate Aparna Bhatt is a masterpiece of bombastic rhetoric. Gonsalves is believed to be associated with the PUCL and the PUDR which are socio - marxist organisations and inherently anti-business. Winner of the Ashoka Foundation award, Colin Gonsalves is a deadly and well respected adversary whom corporates should avoid entanglement with and who is well entrenched with the media. Gonsalves' favoured tactics include dummy Forums - these are shell NGO's with names like "FORUM for X,Y,Z etc." in whose name he will file Petitions in the Supreme Court. Besides the Right to Food campaign, his sucessess include getting the Gujarat riot matter before the apex court, compulsory registration of marriages, forest land for tribals, water conservation and management, women's rights etc. With so many social issues to pursue it is inevitable that Gonsalves' path will soon go the M.C.Mehta way in Public Interest Litigation and cause massive problems for corporates in the near future.
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Useful Internet Links...
Website of The Pioneer - India's oldest Newspaper and still the best.
Colin Gonsalves' Right to Food Campaign
Right to Information Laws in India
Acts available for download on this website
INDIA PIL LAWS ACTS BAREACTS BARE ACT LAW TEXT DOWNLOAD the cable television networks regulation act 1995 the consumer protection act 1986 the environment protection act 1986 the water prevention and control of pollution act, 1974 Select Judgements of the Supreme Court of India
M.C.Mehta v. UOI in Ganga Kanpur Tanneries Sarla Mudgal v UOI void Islamic marriages and Uniform Civil Code anguished Apex Court rules against plea bargaining qv. Malimath Commission
Quote of the Month :-
"Tho' the mills of Government turn e'r so slowly - they grind so exceedingly small !"
- thank you Sarbajit Roy for reminding us