Noted human rights’ activist Sandeep Pandey severely beaten up by Coca Cola security

Shame on the Government : Instead of protecting public interest, they are more of vanguards of corporations!!!

Today in Mehndiganj Varanasi, noted social activist and recepient of Ramon Magsaysay Award 2002 Dr Sandeep Pandey was severely beaten up by security personnels of COCA COLA and Varanasi police when he was staging a peaceful protest demonstration outside Coca Cola bottling plant.

It is indeed a matter of shame and disgust that our Government agencies protect and promote the interest of multinational corporations and turn a blind eye to the interest and welfare of common people.

Sandeep Pandey’s right toe received heavy impact injuries when security personnel banged an iron rod on it. Sandeep has received many lathi injuries on his back apart from a head injury from a rifle butt.

National convenor of NAPM (National Alliance of People’s Movement) Sandeep Pandey was staging a peaceful demonstration against Coca Cola company for misleading our people and trampling over their welfare. Coca Cola has been taking out more than 150,000 liters of water everyday in this Mehndiganj Coca Cola plant and as a result of which the water table has gone down quite low, leaving the hand pumps and irrigation mechanisms non functional. Farmers are left with not even a drop to irrigate their fields and forced to go for deep borings to survive and fight for water.

Coca Cola on the other hand has no role to play at all in water conservation or harvesting, and is selling our own water at a price which competes with that of milk. It is indeed shameful the manner in which our elected representatives gave them a clean chit even after a reputed agency like CSE brought out a report against their soft drinks.

The choice has to be made clear, whether public interests weigh more than corporate interests or is it vice versa.

Many other activists and village based farmers have sustained injuries from Coca Cola security & police brutalities, and the injuerd include : state convenor of NAPM Nandlal, Rekha (whose abdomen received countless blows of lathi by Mahila Police), another villager lady whose head ripped open due to police atrocity.

Sandeep Pandey, who heads the largest coalition of grassroot organizations in this Indian Sub continent (NAPM), said before leaving that ‘it is high time to defy corporate domination. Giant corporations govern our people and land. This rule by corporations violates the fundamental democratic principle of consent of the governed. We need to usher in the change to bring in a just and social order’.

 http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_370593,000900010004.htm
 http://www.corpwatchindia.org/issues/PID.jsp?articleid=4545

Background Note:

Coca-Cola is in trouble in India. Ever since the first allegations
arose
in Kerala, India, of water scarcity and polluted water resulting from
its
bottling operations, Coca-Cola's public relations department has
churned
out denials, insisting that the charges are false and that it is the
"target of a handful of extremist protesters."

Coca-Cola's global website carries their position on the issue and
claims
that the "local communities have welcomed our business as a good
corporate
neighbor."

Nothing could be further from the truth.

It is time for Coca-Cola to seriously examine and address the adverse
impacts of its operations in India. In fact, Coca-Cola needs to stop
treating the issues in India as a public relations problem and assign
it
to the appropriate department that will genuinely address the issues of
over-exploitation of water (leaving the community with scarce water
resources) and pollution of water sources as a result of its
operations.
Hindustan Coca-Cola and Bharat Coca-Cola are the Indian subsidiaries of
Coca-Cola.

To highlight these issues, we are profiling a series of community
struggles against Coca-Cola in India, all of which point to a pattern
in
the company's operations. The communities are left thirsting as
Coca-Cola
draws water from the common water resources. Its operations are
polluting
the scarce water that remains. The emergence of local, grassroots
struggles against the cola giant's operation in India should also serve
as
a reminder to Coca-Cola's bosses in Atlanta that this is not a public
relations problem that one can just "spin" and wish away. Rather, the
heart of the issue is a serious concern about control over natural
resources and the right of communities to determine how business is
done
in their communities.

Close to a year after our report on Coca-Cola's operations in
Plachimada,
Kerala, the communities in and around Coca-Cola's facility continue to
hold the factory responsible for their water woes. In fact, the local
panchayat (elected body at the village level) decided in April NOT to
renew the license issued to the Coca-Cola factory, on the grounds of
"protecting public interest." Protests, led primarily by Dalits
(formerly
untouchables) and Indigenous Peoples, have continued for over a year
against the factory, and new data validates the charges that
Coca-Cola's
bottling operations have depleted and contaminated the ground water.
Surendranath C visited the area and filed a report on the latest stage
of
the struggle in Plachimada, Kerala.

Local residents in Mehdiganj, near the holy city of Varanasi, are also
gearing up for a struggle against Coca-Cola. Coca-Cola has illegally
occupied a portion of the common property resources of the village and
was
found guilty of evading payment of land revenue by a local court.
Protesters were met at Coca-Cola's factory gates by about 200 police
personnel, sent to "protect" the plant along with 50 gun-toting private
security guards. This was not all for show-- the demonstrators were
beaten
up. The Coca-Cola plant in Mehdiganj enjoys heavily subsidized
electricity
and is accused of spewing toxics into surrounding agricultural fields
as
well as causing serious water shortage as a result of its operations.
We
have a report from Mehdiganj.

In yet another community, this time in Kudus village in Thane district,
villagers are forced to travel long distances in search of water which
has
dried up in their area as a result of Coca-Cola's operations. Villagers
are questioning the subsidized water, land and tax breaks that
Coca-Cola
receives from the state, only to leave them thirsting for water.
Coca-Cola
has built a pipeline to transport water from a river to its plant, and
an
activist opposing the pipeline was detained by police authorities for a
week. We carry a story from the Times News Network.

And in a proactive move, more than 7,000 people, mostly women, turned
out
to protest a proposed Coca-Cola factory in Sivaganga, Tamil Nadu.
Residents are justifiably worried that Coca Cola's operations in the
area
would lead to scarcity of water and contamination of water. We carry an
article from Frontline.

For Coca-Cola to claim, after being made aware of the community
protests
all over India, that "local communities have welcomed our business as a
good corporate neighbor," is nothing short of arrogance. But then,
Coca-Cola's arrogance should come as no surprise as it is accustomed to
having its way with governments.

Under the rules of entry for Coca-Cola into India, it was agreed that
Coca-Cola would divest 49% of its equity stake in India within 5 years.
In
an unprecedented move, the government of India seems to have given in
to
Coca-Cola's pressure, and is on the verge of changing its policy in
this
regard to suit Coca-Cola's interest. We are faced with a situation
where
Indian investors will own 49% of Coca-Cola's Indian operations, but
have
no vote whatsoever! Just like in the Enron case, the US government
played
a significant role. Robert Blackwill, the US ambassador to India, in a
letter to Brajesh Mishra, Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister of
India, stated that, "I would like to bring to your attention, and seek
your help in resolving, a potentially serious investment problem of
some
significance to both our countries. The case involves Coca-Cola, one of
the largest single foreign investors in India."

For a company that has had its way and has access to top US officials,
things are not so rosy after all. Coca-Cola may very well be the most
recognizable brand name in the world but it is also increasingly
becoming
the target of ire of local communities around the world as a result of
its
disregard for communities and the environment. Community struggles in
India against Coca-Cola are just a few of many that exist and are
emerging. Coca-Cola was also identified as a target of boycott to
protest
the US led invasion of Iraq. Sales of Coca-Cola plummeted in certain
areas
in India, such as Kerala.

In an extremely significant case, Coca-Cola's main Latin American
bottler
is facing trial for allegedly hiring right wing paramilitary forces
(aka
death squads) to murder and intimidate trade union organizers,
especially
from the union, Sinaltrainal. The suit has been brought under the Alien
Tort Claims Act, which allows corporations to be sued in the US for
crimes
committed overseas.

Coca-Cola is also the target of an international campaign demanding
that
Coca-Cola guarantee access to care and treatment for all their
employees
and their families living with HIV/AIDS, especially in the African
continent where Coca-Cola is a major employer.

Holding Coca-Cola accountable for its pollution, as various communities
in
India are trying to do, will not be the first such instance. In May
2003,
Coca-Cola de Panama was fined US$300,000 for polluting Matasnillo River
in
Panama.

Coca-Cola, it seems, is on its way to soon earning the reputation that
Enron enjoyed in India. Both Enron and Coca-Cola top the Foreign Direct
Investment list from the US in India. Enron's Indian operations (Dabhol
Power Corporation, a joint venture with Bechtel and General Electric,
among others) was the single largest foreign direct investment in India
and became the target of activists across the country due to
irregularities in its manner of carrying out its business, including
the
use of armed thugs to suppress opposition. Indians had shut down Enron
long before the financial scandal in the US brought the entire company
down.

Coca-Cola could soon join that list.

The India Resource Center will focus on supporting community struggles
against Coca-Cola in India. Check back regularly for updates.