The political part of the bauxite alliance is seen as resting on a small circle of top State Congress politicians. Of paramount importance is Chief Minister Y S Rajashekhara Reddy (YSR), a particularly powerful factionist leader from the southern Rayalaseema region of the State, who had managed to unite the Congress party, and remove the seemingly unbeatable Chandrababu Naidu of the TDP party in 2004 (Balagopal 2004). Virtually any decision of greater economic importance seemingly had to go via the Chief Minister, his presence confirmed in available meeting notes on the bauxite project. Additionally, Chief Minister YSR had a key role in the State government when acting as its de-facto spokesperson on economically important projects when lobbying for administrative approvals with the Centre. Or as one journalist expressed it: “The CM is acting like a public relations officer for the companies when he comes to Delhi (Interview Telugu language journalist, Delhi 2/5 2008).”
Nominally belonging to the same governing party, the politicians seen as crucial in the bauxite alliance were of mixed regional, caste and class backgrounds though with a Reddy domination at the top. For the purposes of alliance formation politicians do not necessarily have to share more than the interest to see a major project implemented. As far as group formations within the AP Congress party is concerned there is however some support for a closer cooperation between these politicians. Allegations of favouritism in awarding contracts have been particularly common for irrigation and mining projects in the State:
All irrigation projects are [implemented] by politicians but there are also some TDP contractors. Congress said openly that we are also giving you contracts so stop complaining.
They will all cooperate on this and also did on earlier governments (Interview researcher Hyderabad, 28/2 2008).
This was supported by a researcher in Visakhapatnam: ‘Things move only through favours and you need political support which is unfortunate. The CM’s son gets things done superfast’
(Interview researcher Visakhapatnam 7/2 2008).
Many, if not even all, of the most powerful politicians in Andhra Pradesh are also businessmen these days.57 This includes the Chief Minister who via his son YS Jagmohan Reddy, saw a major business empire take shape during the mandate period 2004-2009 including a State-wide newspaper and TV news channel Sakshi, a cement plant including a limestone mining lease and IT parks. The Union Minister of State for mining T Subbarami Reddy, who is similarly a major contractor of road and dam construction via his stock-listed company Gayatri Cements (also officially run by the son), provided direct links to the Centre. The treasurer of the AP Congress party, P Pratap Reddy, is related to the Chief Minister, owner of Penna Cements and allegedly an investor in ANRAK Cements.
The promise of land set out in the MoU of the bauxite project ensured that select Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) from the particular project areas would be actively involved.
Specifically the Minister of Housing from Vizianagaram District, and the Commercial Taxes Minister from Visakhapatnam District were making statements in favour of the project and appeared in meeting notes discussing the project rather than for example the more expected mining or industry ministers. Crucially the MLA of tribal-reserved S Kota including the proposed mining area of Araku has not been involved in any decisions as far as can be gathered, but has also not been voicing a difference of opinion to plans which are not very popular among his constituency. Being part of the personal circle around the Chief Minister and in control of personal networks of influence at the sites seems to have had higher importance than being nominally in charge of portfolios like industry, mining or tribal welfare.
Any major investment is given preference in the State where economic growth is high up on the agenda, but it might be possible to see that certain investors with direct links to the State government have even higher priority. “In Andhra Pradesh all the [Special Economic Zone]
developers are relatives of the Chief Minister. Tata and Jindal come second in the state (K Balagopal at the Southern Regional Strategy Meeting on SEZs, Chennai, 13/9 2008).” We might thus expect Jindal’s bauxite project to be given slightly lower priority if others with closer personal relations to the State government also need support, such as ANRAK Aluminium.
Politicians are of course not only, or even necessarily mainly, concerned with making money since they also need to remain in favour with the voters to get elected (and once in power,
57Three types of support are proposed for this section: Interview responses from various insiders, meeting notes of how the bauxite project has been planned, and newspaper articles where it becomes important who is making statements on particular issues.
elected). For this a pro-poor image is essential since the poor make up the majority of voters. In Andhra Pradesh the promotion of business is never presented as being against the right to land and livelihoods of the poor. In the case of tribal land rights the main politicians, who tend to be from southern AP, are just not particularly aware of the important role it plays in the Scheduled Areas of the northern parts of the State as the following interview based on a high-level meeting in Hyderabad shows:
YSR was talking about so and so much money being spent on tribals and I got a bit agitated.
I said I wanted to speak to give a reply. I told the CM, look Mr Chief Minister for heaven's sake don’t keep talking about this. Because the money you spend in the tribal areas goes to contractors and intermediaries, it doesn’t really reach the tribals. What the tribals need is not money they want their rights. The problem is that as soon as some officer tries to transfer land [back] to tribals you will transfer that officer. Your government will not allow land to be restored to tribal people. Basically what they want is the right to be recognised. They want the ability to supervise their own schools, their own hospitals. Give them the chance to become involved. Not money. You know the reaction of the Chief Minister? I was sitting at a table with the Chief Secretary next to me and then the Chief Minister. The Chief Minister was whispering in the ear of the Chief Secretary. He was asking "what is this land transfer regulation?" (Interview retired IAS officer 20/10 2006).
The increasing political power over the bureaucracy manifested itself in a top-level meeting of State bureaucrats organised by the Chief Secretary where the Forest Department secretary failed to appear since ‘all the decisions are made by the CM anyway’ (Interview retired IAS officer, Hyderabad 26/2 2008).
Changes after the 2009 elections
This was the way the political side of the bauxite alliance was seen as configured during the fieldwork. But then elections took place in 2009 and despite the return to power of Congress both in the State and at the Centre, the bauxite alliance went through significant changes. The special point to be made by separately discussing this reconfiguration is to show how politicians might appear superior in power but in the end have to be concerned about how voters perceive them or risk being voted out of power.
The main promoter at the Centre, the former Union Minister of State in Mining is no longer part of the government as a minister despite remaining as a nominated Rajya Sabha MP. And one of the main local spokesmen for the project lost the elections from non-tribal Visakhapatnam
District and thus his position as Minister of Commercial Taxes in the State government. Chief Minister YSR, before his untimely death, strengthened his position in the 2009 elections and managed to get his son elected as a Member of Parliament. And Vizianagaram District is now more than ever in the hands of Housing Minister Botcha Satyanarayan’s family (and the Congress party) with 1 State government minister (Mr Satyanarayan himself), 3 MLAs and 1 MP (the wife of Mr Satyanarayan) from the District, out of the total of 7 MLA and 1 MP seats.
The tribal MLA of S Kota, which covered both the proposed mine and refinery areas before the constituency was redrawn in time for the 2009 elections, was side-lined to the point of not even getting a chance to get re-elected for Congress. For a while he instead considered to try as an independent in the newly created tribal Araku assembly and then in the end dropped his campaign altogether. In the newly created S Kota unreserved constituency, the bauxite alliance member and elected Zilla Parishad (District Council) member of kshatriya caste was not rewarded with a Congress ticket. He subsequently contested elections as independent and was banned from the Congress party for six years for this. The eventual election result was a win for the TDP candidate who, like the Congress candidate, was a velama.
The most important change however took place in the central government where the Congress MP Jairam Ramesh, who has made cautious remarks about his concern for the future of the Araku coffee growers, is the new Union Minister of Environment after successive governments with the Tamil Nadu-based DMK party holding the position. A stronger enforcement of environmental laws seems to be forthcoming, most importantly no environmental approvals for mines across the country until the new Forest Rights Act has been implemented (See chapter 6.3.4 for more on this Act) (Ministry of Environment and Forests 2009). But the Minister is likely to be put under pressure from party members from the State to approve the project. It is quite clear that this is not what the Andhra Pradesh Congress party representatives had expected when the party strengthened its grip on power after the elections (The Hindu 2010b).