Satire
Ghost in the mines
V Gangadhar suspects that an evil spirit, which escaped during the mining in Karnataka, helped greedy men like the Reddy brothers make their operations invisible. He suggests summoning an exorcist to get rid of the mining ghost. |
American playwright Tennessee Williams, known for morbid themes in his plays, was once found digging in his garden when he was a young boy. When a friend asked him what he was digging for, young Tennessee replied, ‘I am digging for the debils’. In a way, it was a foreshadow of what to expect from his plays.
Indian mining is something like that. When you mine, you have to dig. When you dig, you do not know what you will encounter. Looking at India’s mining scene today, young Tennessee was not far off the truth. ‘Debils’ could be let loose and take charge of the situation.
What happened in the recent mining scam? In Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Orissa, thousands of hectares of land, rich in iron ore was dug up. The ore lay in huge heaps for many weeks and then transported to centres outside the state or to convenient ports for shipment abroad. Now, no one could be ignorant to what was going on.
The earth was dug up, the ore collected and transported, all in broad daylight. The robbing of the mines went on for years and became public knowledge only after sections of the media exposed the scam and implicated the Reddys.
Now, think for a while. How could this have happened? Why wasn’t any action taken on such an extensive, broad daylight robbery?
Tennessee Williams’ memoirs give us the answer. The miners of Bellary and other places were digging for the ‘debil’. There was only one answer as to why this large scale illegal mining went undetected? The answer was clear, the ‘debil’ was protecting the illegal activities.
‘Debil’ in the 21st century? That too an underground ‘debil’? Don’t dismiss this as arrant nonsense. Those of us who had read the book ‘Exorcist’ and watched the horror movie would remember that the young girl was possessed by an evil spirit which got released during an archaeological expedition in Iraq. Portion of the earth were dug up, and the evil spirit found an escape route. Something like this could have happened in the mining episode. After having escaped from deep under the mines, the evil spirit wanted to help evil and greedy men (like the Reddy brothers) who were involved in the racket and made the entire operation invisible to outsiders. You should know that this was not a difficult job for the evil spirit! Since evil spirits were known to operate on long term basis the mining scandal went on undetected for several years.
How then was the plot unraveled? One can never be sure of details, but the ‘spirit experts’ I consulted, spoke of a ‘spirit weariness’ where the evil spirit simply got bored and tired of the operation and unveiled the magic screen which had covered up the entire operation. Some of the journalists came to know of this and exposed the scandal. The work was mostly handled by the ‘Supernatural Correspondents’ of the region.
What happens now? The Reddys were in jail, mining had stopped. The Karnataka government did not know how to handle the situation and open the mines. The BJP which ruled the State was not on talking terms with the Reddys. Though the original evil spirit which caused all the problem may be out temporarily it could return and create fresh trouble. How could that be prevented?
Again go back to ‘Exorcist’ where the young girl was ‘dedevilled’ (like debriefed/dewormed) with the help of an official exorcist. The Karnataka government should take immediate steps to get hold of an exorcist and make him get to work on the Bellary mines. The BJP can seek the help of its various Swami and Sadhu brigades and who knows, even Baba Ramdev would be ready to help. As a final step the evil spirit could be warned off that if it did not leave the mines for good, Anna Hazare would start a fast in one of the mines and his entire team would be there to help him! The evil spirit would do anything to avoid such a catastrophe and disappear for good.
The writer is a well-known satirist.