THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: We will never know whether Joseph Cyril Bamford had even heard of the rolling hills of Munnar faraway in South India when he founded the J C Bamford Excavators Ltd, in Rocester, UK in 1945 to manufacture equipment for construction, excavation and demolition.
Even if he had, he never would have dreamt his JCB would become synonymous with the geopolitics of a South Indian state! The only political connect of Munnar then was it being the summer resort of the British rulers who could not stand the heat of the plains.
In 2007 there was a spurt of sales in toy JCBs courtesy the three cats borrowed by Comrade V S Achuthanandan from Comrade Deng Xiaoping. It took a few days for the cats to establish the JCB as an icon of fight against encroachment.
Kids naturally took a fancy for the toy which was seen dancing around the serene hills pulling the sky high impudence down to the earth.
The moment it scratched the political walls the murmurs of protest exploded. And the cats packed their bags. “The first point of conflict was the sanctity of the title deeds issued by former deputy tahsildar M R Raveendran [which came to be known as Raveendran Pattayam],” says K Suresh Kumar who led the special task force.
“However, the then CM VS felt half of the deeds were genuine. When the special team targeted other encroachments in Munnar in which the CPI had interests, they rushed to VS and he asked us to move to the outskirts.
When we were heading for Chinnakkanal another deal was apparently struck between CPI and the Cardamom title holders and we were pulled out again,” Suresh Kumar told Express.
This time the JCB took only a day to dig ‘wrong un’ and the spirits of class war wasted no time and enforced a blanket ban on them. The huge metal cross planted with obvious intentions was pulled down by the JCB. The state CM thundered on a public platform led a virulent attack against ‘insensitive activism’ without thinking of political implications. Even bishops did not object to it initially. “The nature of demolition and the sensitive angle seemed an afterthought,” said a former Revenue officer who had led an eviction drive.
The man who set out to clean up Munnar, Sriram Venkitaraman, is now an agent provocateur. Maverick minister M M Mani has gone to the extent of calling him mad.
Meanwhile, the sharks are having the last laugh as another eviction drive seems heading towards a premature death.
“The real culprits must be laughing loud,” says former minister Mullakkara Ratnakaran who headed the Assembly Committee on Environment which placed its report to protect Munnar. “Even as the whole issue is reduced to CPI v CPM and LDF v UDF, the big players of encroachment are getting away scot free after causing irreparable damage to these hills,” said Mullakkara.
“Any action plan should focus on the real stake holders of Munnar - the landless, the three cent landholders, the poor and of course the flora and fauna. The resort mafia will migrate to greener pastures once Munnar comes crashing down. The original inhabitants will have no place to go. Once this reality is comprehended the solution will unfold, naturally,” said Mullakkara.