Pani, nahi - Pepsi piyo!

Found on http://community.livejournal.com/stolngeneration/4581.html (From "Sanjay Sangvai", Sun, November 14, 2004 9:15 pm). I find that it's fitting nice to the name of this blog:

Pani, nahi - Pepsi Piyo (Don’t’ drink water- have Pepsi). Say India’s Super Star Amitabh Bachhan.

Other Stars Follow Suit

For last some months the television channels in India are continuously showing one advertisement by the movie superstar Amitabh Bacchan. There the actor, rowing as a boatsman in a river, is shown preferring Pepsi Coke to the river water. And, after laying hands on the Pepsi bottles with a victorious smile, jeers the other person – pani piyo, pani piyo (have/drink water!). This is one of the ways the Coke companies’ (Pepsi and Coca-Cola) response to the oft repeated slogan – Pepsi nahin-Pani chahiye (We want water not Pepsi), in almost all the struggles the common people of this land are waging. This is also one of the slogan of the anti-Globalization, anti-multinationals movements.

So the MNCs, and Coke companies to be specific, have decided to hit directly. They made it clear that ‘water’ is their target, if their product is to exist. When the Center for Science and Environment (CSE) exposed he fact that these beverages, including those of Coke companies, contain the residue of pesticides, the then BJP-led government tried to trivialize the issue. However, the Coke companies unleashed a barrage of advertisements ridiculing the CSE findings and the potential danger. The so called progressive film ‘Lagaan’ fame actor-producer Aamir Khan, on the peak of his popularity, jeering the finding in the guise of Bengali intellectual and some itty-bitty actress was mocking at the ‘three monkeys’ of Gandhi. Now we have the Superstar rooting for the Coke company and pooh-poohing those who drink only water.

Money: How Much, What Cost?

This is an unequal war. The corporates have billions to spend on flashy-glossy-catchy ads; political leaders like Digvijay Singh who had written off Rs. 78 crores of taxes for Coca-Cola, in Madhya Pradesh. And the pantheon of Amitabhs, Aamirs, Tendulkars, Gangulys are with them to catch the young and legitimize their polluting, hazardous acts. These stars should know that the Coke beverages contain carbon dioxide which has adverse effect on respiratory system, ethylene glycol harmful for brain and kidneys, aspatum which is hazardous for brain, nervous system, digestive system, may cause cancer and undersized brain. According to the CSE, the soft drinks, including the Coke beverages, contain hazardous pesticides like linden, DDT, Melathiun and other chemicals. According to Dr. Kartar Singh and Dr. Surjit Singh, of Post-Graduate Institute in Chandigarh, these soft drinks contain such variety of chlorine, which is harmful nervous system, heart and brain and can cause cancer-particularly the breast cancer. Consumer and research Center in Ahmedabad has found that they contain Lead two and half times more than tolerance level, which is harmful for heart and kidneys. The people between age 13-25 may fall prey to diabetes due to soft drinks.

How much money do Amitabh Bacchan and Tendulkar want at the cost of the lives and health of the next generation of this country? Except for the badminton champion P. Gopichand, no star had guts to refuse the lure of the cola companies. The companies, ad agencies and the actors – all are indulging in the crime against the people. And the naïve people adore them as Gods!

Mocking at People’s Suffering

Such blitzkrieg and the icons are undermining and denigration and insulting the people’s struggles in Plachmimada, Mehendiganj, Kaladera and other places against the Coke companies for their unrestrained extraction of ground water and pollution of land and water. When millions of people in the villages are thirsting for water, when the agriculture in our country is suffering because the unmindful extraction of groundwater – these icons are shown running down the ‘pani’, and craving for Pepsi or Coke bottles and impelling others to do the same. What is it that they are deriding?

In Kerala, Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Private Ltd. established the plachmimada (Dist. Palakkad) plant in 2000. The company, in violation of laws, has been extracting 8 lakh liters to 15-lakh liters/day, has been dumping the sludge and slurry on lands of unsuspecting farmers promoting their use as fertilizers. The consequence of the company’s blatant use, misuse and violations of existing laws along with the connivance of the concerned departments of the governments have led to the depletion and degradation of the natural resources like groundwater and land in the vicinity. The people of Plachimada had launched an agitation since 22 April 2002 maintaining a picket outside the Coke factory since then. The agitation has crossed 800 days. The Supreme Court Monitoring Committee on Hazardous Wastes (SCMC) that visited the HCCBPL plant on August 12, 2004 and in its report committee indicted HCCBPL for the unauthorized disposal of sludge, containing heavy metals, to farmers in the neighborhood as fertilizer. The Plachimada Solidarity Committee has demanded immediate closure of the bottling plant of Hindustan Coca Cola Beverages at Plachimada, in Palkkad district of Kerala and asked the Kerala government to initiate criminal proceedings against the company to make the company culpable and pay for its ‘crimes’.

In Mehendiganj, near Varanasi, the Coca-Cola plant on 7 acres of farmland extracts lakhs of liters of groundwater from 2 bores working for 24 hours. This has resulted in the lowering of the water table by 15-40 feet. The chemical ash is being spread on the adjacent lands rendering them barren. The polluted water has destroyed the crops like wheat, rice, and chna in about 20 acres, dried the trees of neem and eucalyptus. The polluted water causes scabies, and breeding ground for mosquitoes as it is mixed with the other water – bodies around. The Coca-Cola company is found guilty of revenue stamp-tax evasion of about Rs. 1,50,75,000. The Revenue Collector has ordered the recovery with fine of about Rs. 3,15,00,000. He has also certified that the company has illegally encroached upon the land belonging to the village-community. The villagers are fighting against the company. After many protest demonstration, braving the violent police and jail for opposing the multinational company, they have organized a ‘Save Water Padyatra (foot-march) through various villages to from November 15 to 24 and a mass action at Mehendiganj on November 24, to close the Coca-Cola plant.

Similar stories can be heard from Kaladera(Rajasthan), Wada (Maharashtra), Cola plants in Tami Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and other areas. It is no secret that the corporate media has been a fellow traveller of such corporate powers and has been overactive for promoting the cause of the big capital. The self-styled Journalism of Courage has been operating as an unabashed agent of the corporate powers; its courage consists only in ridiculing and berating the public services and the and the people’s struggles. Such media is twisting the facts, belittling the interests and demands of vast number common people and are projecting the interests and ideas of the tiny section population as the Indiaspeak. With enormous reach and impact due to their money power, they stifle, distort and ridicule the dissenting and different voices and agenda. This is a new form of Totalitarianism, under the garb of liberalism.

Such new circumstances require new and deeper response, analysis along with comprehensive, dynamic strategy from the people’s movements, which have been facing such challenges continuously.

Sanjay Sangvai 7, Chintamani Apartments, 19 Shikshaknagar, Paud Road, Kothrud, Pune-411038 ( India). Ph. 020-25450870, Email sanjaysangvai@yahoo.co.in,sanjsan@rediffmail.com