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Aftab Alam, J. —

1.Speaking in the Constituent Assembly on November 25, 1949 Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, the chief architect of the Constitution of India made one of the most incisive remarks on it:

“On the 26th of January 1950, India would be a democratic country in the sense that India from that day would have a government of the people, by the people and for the people. The same thought comes to my mind. What would happen to her democratic Constitution? Will she be able to maintain it or will she lose it again? This is the second thought that comes to my mind and makes me as anxious as the first... ...On the 26th of January 1950, we are going to enter into a life of contradictions. In politics we will have equality and in social and economic life we will have inequality. In politics we will be recognizing the principle of one man one vote and one vote one value. In our social and economic life, we shall, by reason of our social and economic structure, continue to deny the principle of one man one value. How long shall we continue to live this life of contradictions? How long shall we continue to deny equality in our social and economic life? If we continue to deny it for long, we will do so only by putting our political democracy in peril. We must remove this contradiction at the earliest possible moment or else those who suffer from inequality will blow up the structure of political democracy which this Assembly has so laboriously built up.”

What would have been Dr. Ambedkar’s reaction to the facts of this case? This is one of the thoughts in our mind while dealing with the case.

2.Since independence India has indeed covered a long way on the path of development and economic growth. It continues to take long strides on that path. But how far have we been able to live down the fears expressed by Dr. Ambedkar about our democratic Constitution? How far have we been able to get rid of the contradictions in our life? This case raises these difficult questions.

3.We are anxious that India should develop and grow fast and become strong to take its rightful place in the comity of nations.

4.Development is reckoned in terms of investments in urban infrastructure, roads and highways, communication, technology, extraction and commercial exploitation of minerals, generation of power, production of steel and other essential metals and alloys. Creation of wealth is of utmost importance. Redemption lies in GDP (Gross Domestic product).

5.India does not lack material resources required for development. There are vast treasures of minerals lying buried deep inside its earth. But excavation of minerals from the bosom of the earth and putting them to good industrial and commercial use require lots of initial investment and highly advanced technology. Those too are now available as blessings of globalization. The imperialist’s formula of “philanthropy plus five percent” is the accepted norm. Public-Private Partnership (PPP) is the latest mantra. For some reasonable profits, companies and corporations, both Indian and multinational are willing and ready not only to do the mining for us but also to undertake the development of the region by providing schools, hospitals, and many similar amenities and facilities to the local population. Even the public sector undertakings are not lagging far behind in the race.

6.But there is one catch. There is also the involvement of the human factor. Most of the mineral wealth of India is not under uninhabited wasteland. It lies mostly under dense forests and areas inhabited by people who can claim to be the oldest dwellers of this ancient country. Any large scale mining, therefore, needs not only huge investments and application of highly developed technology but also en masse relocation of the people dwelling upon the land that needs to be mined or at any rate getting the land freed from its inhabitants, for whom it may be the only source of sustenance. But then we have the laws to handle such situations. There is the