Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 150
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 151
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Warning (512): Unable to emit headers. Headers sent in file=/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php line=853 [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 48]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 148]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 181]
LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Moved by the spectacle -Sreejith Sugunan

Moved by the spectacle -Sreejith Sugunan

Share this article Share this article
published Published on Jun 4, 2018   modified Modified on Jun 4, 2018
-The Indian Express

Closure of Sterlite plant says something about our collective morality: Death, violence move governments more than reason and evidence

It took a brazen exercise of what sociologists since Max Weber refer to as the state’s “monopoly of violence” by Tamil Nadu authorities to bring our attention to a problem that had been affecting the local residents of Tuticorin for over two decades. Since this tragic incident, it took hardly a week for the state government to order the closure of Sterlite Copper, the copper smelter plant owned by the UK-based Vedanta Resources plc, though demands for its closure had started since its opening in 1994. While the shutdown of the plant may seem like a satisfactory conclusion for our faculties of moral judgement, this series of events should also serve as an opportunity to further question our own sense of conscience, and in turn, the basis of our moral reasoning.

We all like to consider ourselves as beings who take pride in being more rational than emotional. This is also a default position we ideally want to juxtapose on our institutions — to not succumb to public sentiments and take objective and reasonable decisions. Yet, when the decision by the Tamil Nadu state government to close the plant appears to be a classic case of giving into public sentiments, most of us attribute to this decision a sense of “reasonableness”.

What is at the heart of this “reasonableness”? The state government’s declared reasoning behind the plant closure are “environmental concerns” and “consideration of the interests and sentiments of people of Thoothukudi (Tuticorin)”. It is evident that the latter concern overrides the former in the government’s decision-making calculus. This is perfectly fine as long as it is not motivated by a desire to secure electoral gains, as opposed to being an expression of genuine concern for all the parties involved in the infrastructure project. However, such modes of reasoning still do not address why the concern only cropped up after a blatant display of power that led to 13 deaths. In other words, why is it that “death”, and that too in a visceral fashion, has become the primary motivator to exercise our conscience?

Studies by the National Environmental Engineering Institute had initially pointed out instances of environmental violations by Sterlite Copper, which they later overturned. Another study by a group of researchers from Tirunelveli Medical College showed an “increased prevalence” of “respiratory diseases” and “ENT morbidity”, when samples of approximately 50,000 residents of Tuticorin were compared to those in two adjoining districts. Yet, the National Green Tribunal felt that their investigation did not find any “scientific evidence” that suggested an increase in emissions from Sterlite Copper beyond the permitted amount.

Please click here to read more.

The Indian Express, 4 June, 2018, http://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/tamil-nadu-sterlite-copper-plant-shutdown-tuticorin-protests-police-firing-5202572/


Related Articles

 

Write Comments

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

Video Archives

Archives

share on Facebook
Twitter
RSS
Feedback
Read Later

Contact Form

Please enter security code
      Close