“Each person possesses an inviolability founded on justice that even the welfare of society as a whole cannot override.” - John Rawls

A brief introduction:
It is clear enough on the Vision 2025 of Hydro carbons declared by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Government of India that India will surely annex lands and come up with more crude laws of land acquisition in order to fulfill its dream of petroleum production and consumption, in fact, various laws are already functioning. Laws such as the Open Licensing Policy came hand in hand with the NELP VIIIth edition way back in 2010 and the current exploration of oil fields in Manipur being the IXth edition, the ways of land acquisition processes towards the attainment of its vision needs to be reviewed. All these club of laws and policies made a huge threat for the inhabitants of the proposed drilling areas of Churachandpur and Manipur as a whole.

The present policies:
India had launched various policies in order to attain its dream of sustenance. Policies such as the NELP and the OALP are two of the policies presently used and implemented by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.
The New Exploration Licensing Policy basically aims at the creation of “Equal” opportunities between both the sectors of the companies involved: Public and Private, both Indian and foreign, in the exploration and production of Hydro carbons and in the Oil market. Formulated way back in 1997-98 by the Government of India with Directorate General of Hydrocarbons as a Nodal agency for its implementation, 243 contracts were signed till the VIIIth round. The IXth plan was launched in October 2010 with the license to the nominated fields expiring in 2012. With the objective of covering the remaining 52% out of the 48% covered till the VIIIth plan by the end of 2014, the policy of Open Acreage Licensing Policy was put forward by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural gas.  The OALP system offers opportunity to investors to evaluate acreages round the year and carve out their own areas with perceived work programme commitments.
The Open Acreage Licensing Policy was introduced due to the decline in response of global investors and had failed its objective of attracting global investors open up the frontier basins, this policy of licensing was introduced which is supposed to be in function from 2011. This policy was described as a “More flexible and Investor friendly”, will allow the companies to choose any block for offer at any time without waiting for the regular bidding round and bids can be awarded anytime of the year.

The future objective; India’s vision of 2025:
India in the 21st century focuses on long-term energy security and aims to assure energy security by achieving self-reliance through increased indigenous production and investment in equity oil abroad. The main thrust of the action agenda would be intensification of exploration efforts and achievement of 100% coverage of unexplored basins in a time bound manner to enhance domestic availability of oil and gas, pursue natural gas projects and facilitate availability of LNG, develop hydrocarbon sector as a globally competitive industry, maintain adequate levels of self sufficiency in refining (90% of consumption of middle distillates), establish adequate strategic storage of crude and petroleum products in different locations. Liberalize hydrocarbon market, create a policy framework for cleaner fuels, have a rational tariff and pricing policy, announce a long-term fiscal policy to attract required investments in hydrocarbon sector.
The main targets and goals as follows:

• To assure energy security by achieving self-reliance through increased indigenous production and investment in equity oil abroad.
• To enhance the quality of life by progressively improving product standards to ensure a cleaner and greener India.
• To develop Hydrocarbon sector as a globally competitive industry which could be benchmarked against the best in the world through technology up gradation and capacity building in all facets of the industry.
• To have a free market and promote healthy competition among players and improve the customer service.
• To ensure oil security for the country keeping in view strategic and defense considerations.

It would not be an exaggeration to put forward that India had already failed and contradicted itself towards the basic governing principles and ideologies enshrined in the Constitution. It would not be a myth to say that India does not care about the rights and voices of the million voices as long as it does not affect the so called “Middle Class or Mainstream Society”. Serving the interests of a greater population or the future generations? It should be noted that the plan of the vision stated in its objective of Exploration and Production (Annexure IV, Medium Term, Objective ii), “Aggressively pursue extensive exploration in non-producing and frontier basins for knowledge building and new discoveries, including in deep-sea offshore areas”. The Government’s objective of enhancing the “Quality” of life as well as ensuring a cleaner and green India is just a Utopian dream. It was mentioned by an Imphal based Environmental Activist that in the agreement signed between Jubilant Company and the state Government, there is no mentioning of as to who will bear responsibility in case of an oil spill or other similar hazards.

The real scenario:
Having a look into the Government’s various development policies over the past decade; one can see that Development was and is at the cost of the majority poor who are voiceless, oppressed and neglected in the society for the gain of the few Elites who have power in the economy and political spheres of the country. The rate of Internal Displacement taking place in India, the World Refugee Survey placed the total number of Internally Displaced in India as 507,000 while the Indian Social Institute in Delhi and the Global Internally Displaced Project placed it at 21.3million. These statistics does not necessarily pertain to the total Tribal communities displaced, this figure shows the whole total of displaced communities and people all over India for the so called “Development” projects.

The Constitution of India provides “THE SCHEDULED TRIBES AND OTHER TRADITIONAL FOREST DWELLERS (RECOGNITION OF FOREST RIGHTS) ACT, 2006” which comes in contradictory terms with the proposed OALP a stepping stone for India’s Hydrocarbon vision of 2025. Introduction of the OALP will further create more invasion and confiscation of our land which will further result into us becoming the victims of displacement in our own land. This act supposedly meant to conserve biodiversity, maintain ecological balance and strengthening the conservation regime of the forests while ensuring livelihood and food security of the forest dwelling Scheduled Tribes and other traditional forest dwellers. The Act also further examines the forest rights on ancestral lands which are not adequately recognized in the State Forest during the Colonial period as well as Independent India resulting in injustice and to address the insecurity in tenure and rights on forests. With all the above mentioned intention of protection of Tribals and Forests in the constitution where it is enshrined as an act, the Government still bypasses the act and comes out with the Vision of 2025 possessing a serious threat to the ancestral land, forests and agricultural lands of the settlers in the hill areas of Churachandpur.

The concept of Development induced Displacement:
Kelly A Dhru defined Development induced Displacement as “The forcing of communities and individuals out of their homes, often also their homelands, for the purposes of economic development”.

Displacement was our own experience, short term as well as long term impacts on the environment were seen and heard. The Rehabilitation as well as Resettlement packages were never kept in practice (all these can be clearly seen from our Khuga Dam experience). In the case of displacement, rehabilitation and resettlement are in most cases, not done on a “Land for Land” basis, as required by the International standards laid down by International Labor Organization rather the Governments still relies on The Land Acquisition Act of 1894 which instead emphasizes on cash compensation for loss, the Government has taken a firm stand that Rehabilitation would not be a prime consideration when acquiring Land for “Public purposes”, however, the term “Public purposes” and its usage was never defined in public rather private companies are now granted to acquire land on this pretext.

The big questions which arise here are for whom and which public? In all the various experiences throughout the decade in various states, the Government’s notions of development were always over shadowed and influenced by the large Multi National Companies with the motives of profit maximization rather than developing the “Public”. A pocket size of the society may and will benefit but how about the rest of the public? Above all these, the Government makes the Supreme Court the only judiciary which will deal with appeals against confiscation of land meaning which a civilian will not be able to approach the High Courts in case of illegal land acquisition. It is a common knowledge that the Government of Manipur lacks transparency and accountability, development in this case means “Development” for some political and economic elites, not that of the rural poor or the urban population.

This notion and approach towards development is a human rights violation at the international society. The ILO Convention on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples, 1989 No. 169 Article 31 states, “The state is under an obligation to consult the communities concerned before undertaking any project affecting these lands and obtain their free and informed consent”. In contradiction to this article, the project initiative of Oil exploration in Churachandpur and other districts has been undertaken and leased out by the Indian State way back in 2010 when no form of consent or consultation was taken from the owners and residents of the land under contract. The ILO Convention on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples, 1989 No. 169 Article 7.1 has stated that, ‘The people concerned shall have the right to decide their own priorities for the process of development as it effects their lives, beliefs, institutions and spiritual well-being and the lands they occupy or otherwise use and to exercise control, to the extent possible, over their own economic, social and cultural development. In addition, they shall participate in the formulation, implementation and evaluation of plans and programmes for national and regional development which may affect them directly’.

Is India planning to fulfill its vision of 2025 on the interests of a greater population or the future generations neglecting the rights of the few? Has the Government failed in protecting the rights of the various communities residing in the hill areas of Manipur who as a tradition, passes on these lands to their ancestors as their ancestral land? Will this exploration and Vision of 2025 further alienate us from our own ancestral land leading to a cultural genocide?