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Home--Campaigns--Coca-Cola
An Open Response to "an Open Letter to Shashi Tharoor"
Huffington Post
26 February 2009
Dear Mr Swaminathan and Mr Ajayan,
Thank you for sending me your letter on February 24. I note, however,
that for several days prior to your sending it to me, you had already
released it to the media and in various Internet forums. It would
appear that your communication was therefore not designed to elicit
a genuine answer from me, but rather to score political points. Nonetheless
I am doing you the courtesy of taking your public charges in good
faith and responding to them point by point.
You express your "shock and dismay" at my membership of the Advisory
Board of Yatn, the Coca-Cola India Foundation and go on to "condemn
[my] insensitivity and unconcern to align with the criminal Coca-Cola
against the people of Plachimada." First of all, I should point out
the difference between the Foundation and the company. I serve, alongside
several renowned social activists and human rights leaders, under
the chairmanship of the former Supreme Court Chief Justice and former
Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission, Justice J.S. Verma,
on the advisory board of a purely philanthropic organization. The
Foundation is financed by the Coca-Cola Company as part of its corporate
social responsibility, which is a practice that I have encouraged
around the world since my United Nations days, when UN Secretary-General
Kofi Annan launched the "Global Compact" to encourage corporations
around the world to adhere to certain globally-accepted principles
and practices. Far from "aligning against the people", the purpose
of encouraging such a Foundation is precisely to ensure that the company
looks beyond its commercial bottom-line and serves the people of our
country.
I have been, and remain, strongly committed to the belief that in
our liberalizing economy, private sector companies should not only
maintain the highest employment and labour standards, but also take
pro-active steps to benefit the communities in which they operate.
My membership of the Foundation's Advisory Board aims at promoting
such benefits through a number of concrete projects, particularly
in the area of safe drinking water, which is in such short supply
in our country.
You level a number of charges against the Coca-Cola company's operations
at the Plachimada plant, notably relating to ground-water exploitation
and pollution of groundwater through toxic waste from its plant. As
I stressed, I do not represent the company in any way, but I am fully
aware that such charges led to the plant ceasing operations in 2004.
Needless to say, far from being "unconcerned", I inquired into the
matter to satisfy myself that these allegations had been thoroughly
examined by the competent authorities. I note that a Division Bench
of the Kerala High Court ruled, in a judgment dated 7 August 2005,
that the company was not guilty of unfairly exploiting the groundwater,
and that indeed the groundwater in Plachimada continued to dry up
after the company ceased operations, leading the Court to conclude
that other factors, including a shortage of rainfall, were to blame.
The Court based its conclusions on a number of detailed independent
expert studies, including one that the Court itself had commissioned
from the Centre for Water Resources Development and Management (CWRDM),
Kozhikode, which is a part of the Kerala State Council for Science,
Technology and the Environment. I do not understand on what basis
you are questioning the Kerala High Court's conclusions.
On the question of ground-water toxins and toxic sludge, I have seen
reports from reputed governmental bodies, including the Kerala State
Pollution Control Board and the Central Ground Water Board, New Delhi,
refuting your charges. Once again, I am unable to understand the scientific
basis for your continued charges against the company, and can only
conclude that they are politically-motivated.
Finally, with regard to the discontinuation of the supply of drinking
water by the company, I note that this supply in fact continued till
December 2007, almost four years after the plant's forced closure,
but that it was not practical for the company to continue beyond that
date in view of its lack of operations in the area. The Court order
required it to supply drinking water to the community only so long
as it continued operations there. Nonetheless, the Yatn Foundation
intends to give thought to developing a philanthropic project in Kerala
in the area of drinking water, an issue to which I have personally
attached the highest importance in my interventions on the Advisory
Board.
Let me add, in conclusion, and with a heavy heart, how much I deplore
both the content and tone of your letter. Since leaving the United
Nations, I have been doing my best to promote investment into Kerala,
which alone can generate the employment that is so desperately needed
by our people. As a Keralite, I am ashamed that our people have to
find work elsewhere in India and in the Gulf because the over-politicized
atmosphere in Kerala discourages companies from investing in our state.
The only result of your agitation over the Plachimada plant has been
to close down an investment worth over Rs 80 crores in our state,
which provided direct employment to 400 people and indirect employment
to more than 5000 persons, including transporters, construction workers,
and distributors. While all these people are now out of a job, no
one has benefited from your continued protests. Instead, the image
of Kerala as a place in which it is unwise for businesses to invest
has been reinforced.
It is tragic that actions such as yours ensure that politics overrides
the genuine needs of the people. If you are truly concerned about
the well-being of the people of Plachimada, I would urge you instead
to attempt to do what you can to persuade businesses like Coca-Cola
to invest in Kerala and provide employment and drinking water to the
people of our state. I would be pleased to join you in such an endeavour.
And instead of being dismayed by my service in such a Foundation,
I urge you to applaud whatever help the other Advisory Board members
and I can provide to steer the Foundation's resources towards helping
people on issues like safe drinking water, energy resources, waste
management, and the development of backward areas.
Yours sincerely,
Shashi Tharoor
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