Through green-tinted glasses

Jairam Ramesh as Environment and Forest minister transformed the ministry from being a rubber stamp to an independent think tank — but not without earning the wrath of many across the political class.

Updated on: May 20, 2010, 23:33:31 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan

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Jairam Ramesh as Environment and Forest minister transformed the ministry from being a rubber stamp to an independent think tank — but not without earning the wrath of many across the political class.

As a junior minister in UPA-2, Ramesh got rebuked by his senior Cabinet colleagues, agriculture minister Sharad Pawar and science and technology minister Prithviraj Chavan, for imposing a moratorium on the introduction of Bt brinjal, after country-wise public consultations. Road transport minister Kamal Nath chided him for delays in clearances to road projects. Ramesh hit back saying “my job is to protect environment without jeopardising economic growth”.

For the first time, here was an approach that could refuse permission to projects opposed by locals — ranging from mining in Goa’s fragile eco-system to power plants in a 130 km-stretch of the upper Ganga basin and in the Tadoba tiger reserve in Maharashtra.

“Rarely does the government involve people in decision-making,” said Magsasay award winner activist Sandeep Pandey. “Ramesh showed it could happen with Bt brinjal. To me, it is a lesson for other ministers to involve people in government policy.” Though 30% of respondents found the environment ministry “effective” and “speedy”, around one-fourth wanted the ministry to be bolder.

Ramesh has fast-tracked policy interventions by notifying more stringent air and noise pollution norms, at par with the European standards, and got India’s worst-polluted industrial areas rated. To ensure environmental laws get enforced, Ramesh cut short his foreign visit to get the National Green Tribunal Bill passed in the Budget session. In the monsoon session, a bill to set up National Environment Protection Agency is to be introduced.

The 56-year-old minister has also had his share of controversies, especially the climate change one. He interrupted US Secretary for State Hillary Clinton during her speech on climate change in Delhi and was the first to question IPCC’s claim that most of the Himalayan glaciers would melt by 2035. At the Copenhagen climate summit, Ramesh was among the busiest ministers, echoing his views on behalf of the developing world and was often described as “dynamic” for agreeing to slow down India’s emission growth.

In domestic politics, Ramesh “flexible” climate change approach earned him rebuke. “India diluted its stand on polluter pay principle and per capita emissions to be basis for negotiations at Copenhagen. Ramesh was too soft towards United States, the world’s biggest polluter,” said Prakash Javdekar, BJP leader, who had participated in an MPs conference on climate change in Copenhagen. Climate NGOs have been critical of Ramesh for piggy-bagging on China over climate issues.

His affinity to the Chinese nearly cost him his job after he contradicted the government’s stand publicly in Beijing. Ramesh may have been synonymous with controversies, but even his worst detractors credit him for bringing environment to the forefront of national policy.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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