This is what happened several months ago. A teenager living in the housing society where I reside was sent to Australia to study at a university in Sydney with much fanfare. The parents, whom I often met as part of a group, would tell us how easily the boy got his admission with the help of “some well-meaning friends,” adding that they had obtained an education loan to ensure he could study at a graduate school.

On reaching Sydney, the boy’s parents—especially the father—would tell us how a place to stay had been arranged by a “very close friend” at virtually no cost, and that the boy was “extremely happy.” We would be shown photos of the boy at various spots in the city as evidence of his happiness.

But as time passed, the father began to complain that his son had to “walk a lot” from where he stayed in order to catch public transport. “He gets tired on return,” he would tell us, adding that food was another problem. “He has to prepare his own food, which he has never done. Besides, while we can afford outside food, since he is a pure vegetarian, he isn’t very comfortable with what’s available on the counter.”

A month or so later, we found that the boy had returned. The reason? He was “unable to adjust,” and his mother was quite worried about him. “She advised him to return,” the father said, adding, “We have been promised by the university to return the advance fees deposited for his studies… Good that he is back…” Ironically, the parents never revealed which agent, if any, had organized the boy’s student visa.

While this boy returned after failing to adjust to a foreign environment, a news item published in the Times of India, authored by my ex-colleague Bharat Yagnik, suggests that Australia has now clamped down on Indian students, with the country joining the US and Canada in tightening immigration norms for Indian students, and several universities halting applications from six states, including Gujarat. The universities which have cracked the whip are Federation University, Western Sydney University, Victoria University, and Southern Cross University. Apart from Gujarat, the affected students are from Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Jammu & Kashmir.

The news item quotes what it calls visa consultants and foreign education experts—especially from Gujarat—pointing out that they are “rattled.” In their estimate, “20% of students from the state heading abroad typically choose Australia, a figure likely to drop with these new restrictions.”

Foreign education consultant Bhavin Thaker is quoted as saying, “This has dramatically reduced the number of opportunities available to students. Of every 100 students who plan to study overseas, at least 20 are directly impacted. With Canada and the US already tightening immigration policies, and now Australia going the same way, the list of accessible countries is shrinking. While there’s no official government statement yet, the message is quite clear.”

Visa consultant Lalit Advani is cited as claiming, “The decision by Australian universities to restrict applications from certain regions within India will impact genuine students. The majority of applicants are sincere, and they can be easily identified based on their academic scores, background, and intent. Blanket bans only add to the frustration.”

No sooner had I read the news item than I forwarded it to my college friend Neeraj Nanda, who runs South Asia Times, an online periodical in Melbourne, and phoned him up to find out what was happening, and what the Australian side of the story was. Nanda, who was my colleague at Link Newsweekly in Delhi in the early 1980s, told me that this is an “old story,” pointing out that the authorities in Australia have discovered how Indian students submit fake documents to study in Australia.

The post Why’s Australian crackdown rattling Indian students? Whopping 25% fake visa applications appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Claim: Indian yogis built the Baalbek Temple in Lebanon.

Busted! Sadhguru’s website claims, without citing any sources, that Indian yogis built the Baalbek temple in Lebanon. While trade and culture exchanges between India and countries across the globe have taken place for millennia, there seems to be no available record to point towards Indian builders of the Baalbek temple in Lebanon.

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Figures like Sadhguru have also reportedly contributed to the spread of misinformation. Jagadish “Jaggi” Vasudev, better known as Sadhguru, is a self-styled spiritual leader and founder of the organisation Isha Foundation. In 2019, he was in the news for having called a Muslim student ‘Talibani’ when he was delivering a talk at the London School of Economics. While he later clarified that it was a joke, and that it was a term used in India to call someone being ‘overly-enthusiastic.’ Following this, he was also seen supporting the Citizenship Amendment Act brought forth by the BJP government in 2019 which has been termed by many as anti-constitutional and anti-Muslim. He has also often praised PM Modi, most recently being regarding the inauguration ceremony of the Ram Temple in Uttar Pradesh in January 2024. He also termed the Ram Temple’s inception as ‘a resurrection of a damaged national spirit’. News reports allege that he has over 300 spiritual centres located around the world. Interestingly, the headquarters of his foundation, which is a 50-acre property in Coimbatore has been accused of being built illegally according to a report by NewsLaundry.

His influence seems to be vast with over 12 million followers on Instagram presently, he has boasted of devotees such as Hollywood actors Will Smith and even Mathew McConaughey, according to a report by Vox News from 2022.

On Sadghuru’s website, an article on his website ‘Isha’ named Baalbek Temple – Lebanon’s Ancient Yogic Connection has claimed that the Baalbek monument in Lebanon and suggested that the temple was constructed by Indian yogis and labourers. The writer, who is described as a female ‘meditator’, describes her ‘realisation’ that the temple was built by Indian yogis during her visit.

Later, Sadhguru’s official Facebook page has also posted this claim, in 2017. The post reads, “In Lebanon, there is a temple in Baalbek which is over 4,000 years old. Children in Lebanon schools study that Indian labour, elephants, sculptors and yogis constructed this. It is a massive temple. Some of the foundation stones weigh three hundred tons. Sculptures of lotus flowers are hanging from the ceiling. Obviously, there are no lotuses in Lebanon; it was sculptured by Indians. Every Lebanese child knows this. Has any #Indian child heard about it?”

The author claims that the temple had lotus engravings, which he suggests are not found in the area, “Some curious facts about the Baalbek temple are that you will see stone lotuses carved on the temple’s ceilings. That is intriguing, because there are no lotuses in Lebanon. But when I later came to India, I saw that the lotus is the most common symbolism of spirituality here.”

The essay on the website then goes on to point towards the idea that Indian yogis may have built the temple.  Furthermore, she claims that the stones at the temple were very large (“eight hundred tonnes each”) and thus must have required elephants, which she suggests do not exist in West Asia, to transport such massive slabs of stone.

However, while the author does not seem to provide any details or dates of these events she suggests or “realises” and merely notes from her own observations during the visit and fails to cite any historian or scientist. Furthermore,  her observation that there were no elephants in West Asia seems to be misplaced, as it has been recorded by scientists that the region around Syria was noted to have elephants that went extinct around 8 century BCE.

Furthermore, according to the factual historical record outlined by UNESCO on its website, the Baalbek complex which is located at the foot of the Anti-Lebanon mountain range was a huge cultural institution during Roman times and served as a prominent sanctuary within the Roman world. UNESCO’s description of the site stated that it had Roman origins.

Temple of Jupiter (Baalbek) – Source: Britannica.com

 While, not much is known about the temple from before its Greek conquest in 323 BCE, it was reportedly a significant model of Imperial Roman architecture and has its own history as it was dedicated to the Roman Triad of Heliopolis which consisted of Jupiter, Venus, and Mercury, according to the Encyclopaedia Britannica.

Furthermore, UNESCO’s documentation reveals that the Roman constructions were superimposed upon earlier ruins, which included remains of the Phoenician tradition. Sadhguru’s attempt to reshape history that is surrounding Baalbek contradicts established historical facts and risks distorting the significance of cultures and traditions from different parts of the world. The Temple was dedicated to three gods of Roman mythology – Jupiter, Venus, and Mercury, which were, as per UNESCO, a part of a Phoenesian cult. The Phoenicians were a Semitic group that were found in the region of Levant, near east of the Mediterranean Sea.

Hence, apart from this piece written by the author for the organisation’s website ‘Isha’  there is little mention of the Indian presence at the temple that was found while conducting this research. While cross cultural exchanges have taken place between India and the globe, from Greeks to the Chinese, it is difficult to ascertain and certify these by layperson observations by religious figures.

Claim: Australia’s original name was Astralaya.

Busted! Sri Sri Ravi Shankar  has been claiming that during the time of the Mahabharata, there was a Sanskrit origin for the name Australia, Astralaya – which means armoury. However, Australia’s name means southern land in Latin, due to its position vis a vis the rest of the world. There is no evidence that points towards Astralaya ever being the name according to official records.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar is the founder of the Art of Living Foundation. He is from Papanasam, Tamil Nadu. In 2023-2024, his foundation, Art of Living, has signed several MOU’s with the government in relation to environmental concerns, farmers’ concerns, substance addiction. As per Financial Times, in 2024, Shankar was part of a team of leaders who led an anti-corruption campaign against the then prime minister Manmohan Singh of Congress. According to a 2016 article about him, The Quint reported that his AOL foundation is mired in several controversies, namely that the foundations buildings are built on encroached land in Karnataka. In 2010, he was also accused by an NRI of taking his 15 acres of land. Shankar is endorses by leaders globally, so much so that his foundation has even been praised by the US president Joe Biden. Shankar’s X page, where he regularly posts about his global engagements, has about 4.1 million followers at present.

 He has reportedly done so by linking it to the term “Astralaya” (Astra-Alaya) which supposedly translates to armoury. In an undated video posted on YouTube uploaded in 2021 by a page called NRI Affairs, the spiritual leader responds to a person’s question and tries to concoct the idea that Australia had ties to India Hindu heritage, saying, “Do you know the country, Australia? Where did its name come from? Australia (armoury) in Mahabharata became Australia.”

History provides a different narrative. The national library of Australia which holds historical records pertaining to the land and nation, informs us that the name “Australia” was actually coined by English explorer Matthew Flinders to describe the continent on a map. Prior to Flinders, the landmass was referred to as ‘Terra Australis Incognita,’ a term which means unknown Southern land in Latin. Here, the word Australis which means Southern.

Prior to the name Australia, the land was named ‘New Holland’ by the incoming Dutch immigrants to the land in the 17th century. However, both these names are admittedly named by white Anglo-Saxon colonialism that dominated and plundered the habitats of indigenous people in Australia. The advent of European colonialism did not just result in cultural changes and domination of the whites but also led to a decline in the population of the indigenous inhabitants of the land. When the Europeans arrived Australia was declared as ‘terra nuilis’, a land that belonged to no one or wasteland. This shows how little value the Europeans gave to the indigenous as they sought to colonise and inhabit the land.

However, before the Europeans arrived, the territory now called Australia was known by several different names among its Indigenous peoples, reflecting the multitude of languages and cultures across different regions, according to the National Library of Australia. Each of these names had spiritual significance to the land. The act of Indian spiritual leaders to make such claims seems to be another, deliberate or otherwise, means of erasure of aboriginal history, culture, presence.

While there is an undoubtedly western, Anglo-Saxon domination behind this interpretation, and indigenous aboriginal insights need to be factored in, Indian market gurus take on the term is certainly fallacious.

Related:

hate buster: muslims and the myth of polygamy in india

hate buster: conspiracy theories about taj mahal collapse, yet again

hate buster: was every muslim previously a hindu?

hate buster: a glimpse into how missionary faiths arrived in india

The post Busted: Exploring the origins of Australia as ‘Astralaya’ and the potential Indian Yogi influence on Baalbek Temple in Lebanon appeared first on SabrangIndia.

25-year-old Vishal Jood, who hails from Haryana, had gone to Australia, purportedly to get an education. But he ended up committing a spate of hate crimes, attacking members of the Sikh community. For this he was convicted and jailed.

“Attempts to undermine Australia’s social cohesion will not be tolerated,” tweeted Alex Hawke, Australia’s Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs, adding, “I thank community leaders who have worked to build cross-community unity and resilience against attempts by a small minority to incite discord and disharmony, demonstrating the importance and benefit of our nation’s strong social cohesion.”

Attempts to undermine Australia’s social cohesion will not be tolerated. https://t.co/uQKM3bMGeX

— Alex Hawke MP (@AlexHawkeMP) October 16, 2021

Hawke further said, “The man was an unlawful non-citizen at the time of his arrest. The Morrison Government takes very seriously its responsibility to protect Australians from non-citizens who engage in criminal conduct. We will always act decisively to protect our community.”

Recently, after completion of his sentence, Jood was deported back to India. One would think this would be seen as deeply shameful and regrettable, but Jood received a hero’s welcome! Sood was greeted with “Welcome Back Hero” hashtags and was honoured with a car procession as if he had returned home with an international award. The right-wing cheered him on social media.

Welcome Back Hero#VishalJood
pic.twitter.com/eH96g5NIy2

— Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga (@TajinderBagga) October 17, 2021

#Australia की अदालत ने इस अराजक #VishalJood को सिखों पर हमले का ना सिर्फ़ दोषी माना बल्कि कई महीने जेल में रखा
और जेल से बाहर निकलते ही ऑस्ट्रेलिया से deport करके भारत भेज दिया।

भारत में इस अराजकता का ऐसे स्वागत हुआ ।ये देश तबाही के रास्ते पर है। pic.twitter.com/kbUUHvdUeq

— Vinod Kapri (@vinodkapri) October 18, 2021

According to a report in IndianLink, an Australian portal for the diaspora, Australia’s Migration Act says, “Non-citizens who have committed serious crimes can be deported at the end of their jail sentence” adding that “Vishal Jood was arrested by NSW police in April after an investigation revealed his alleged connection to a series of targeted attacks on members of the Sikh community. A number of charges were levelled against him but in a plea bargain, NSW’s Department of Public Prosecutors dropped eight charges that included racial hate crime, while Jood pleaded guilty to three charges for which he was sentenced to six months in jail.” The Australian portal added that “it  is believed that there was lobbying undertaken at very senior levels in the Indian government to secure the release of Vishal Jood due to political pressure from the ruling BJP in the state from which he hails.”

Jood hails from Haryana, and the state’s Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar had in June asked the Australian authorities to release him, reported NDTV. Jood, had been convicted for assaulting Sikhs in September last year and February this year. Khattar had reportedly asked External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, to intervene and secure Jood’s release from a prison in Australia.

However it is bizzare to see the caravan of SUVs taking Jood out in a victory procession. Or maybe this is what the Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar meant in the video on social media where he was encouraging his volunteers “to pick up lathis and attack farmers” adding “If they go to jail, on their return they would be big leaders”.

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Haryana: “Upper castes” booked for social boycott of 150 Dalit families
Haryana lifts decades old ban, allows gov’t employees to join RSS, Jamaat-e-Islami

The post Deported from Australia for Hate Crimes, Vishal Jood, gets hero’s welcome appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Horticulturalist Hamish Fairbrother, from Townsville, noted Adani, a powerful Indian tycoon implementing the ambitious project, is beginning construction on a massive dam which will suck water from surrounding farms, towns, and native ecosystems.

“At a time when the country is experiencing history-changing weather conditions – when whole towns are running out of water, rivers are drying up and extreme fire threats being described as the new normal, the government is allowing Adani to use billions of litres of water in order to mine and wash coal. This is irresponsible and reprehensible”, he argued.

In June, the Federal Department of the Environment conceded in court that it did not take into consideration public submissions to Adani’s North Galilee Water Scheme. There were over 2,000 public submissions to the plan, which gives Adani permission to use 12.5 billion litres of water a year from the Suttor River. It is now in the process of reviewing that decision.

According to Fairbrother, “The government has already admitted it ignored the submissions of the public when it came to Adani’s immense water usage. The fact they are still supportive of this project in the face of an extreme drought and the threat of worse from climate breakdown is a betrayal of Australian people and the water that sustains us.

“Careful water management is a necessity for life on this dry continent. If our government will not protect this precious resource by rejecting the Carmichael mine, everyday people need to personally take strong action to stop it from being built.”

Courtesy: Counter View

The post Picketers disrupt work, say: Adani Australian coal mine project would ‘aggravate’ drought appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Commissioned by the Stop Adani Alliance, which claims to be a growing grassroots movement of local action groups working to stop Adani’s what it calls “disastrous plans for a dirty new coal mine”, even as building “the biggest environmental movement in Australia’s history”, survey has been released amidst protests at dozens of locations in the country to “oppose” to the project.

The ReachTel surveyed about 2,200 people across Australia. It found 55.6% of respondents opposed the mine going ahead, which is more than twice the number who supported the mine. As many as 18.4% of respondents saying they were “undecided”.

On being asked what do they think of Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk making an election commitment not to spend public funds on Adani’s project, 65.8% of those polled wanted her to veto the possible $1bn loan the federal government might give to the project through the Northern Australian Infrastructure Facility (NAIF).
 

The project site

An Adani project in Kutch

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Gold miners are fighting back against the Western Australian government’s plan to hike gold royalties by 50%, from 2.5% per ounce to 3.75%.
 

What will happen to gold mines if royalties are raised? AAP

Western Australia is trying to improve its budget position. The miners claim that they cannot absorb the royalty increase. This fight shows the need to take a closer look at gold royalties and how much they raise, check out royalty rates on other commodities and consider how royalties could be done better.

There are some legitimate concerns about royalties. As they are paid almost immediately on production or “royalty” value, one concern is that payments are made before net profit is determined. Industry argues that this is a strong deterrent to investment in marginal projects (mines that are barely profitable).

A well-designed tax should not affect business decisions (they should be “neutral”). The way WA levies royalties is also problematic in that no adjustment is made for profitability of a mine. Among other things, this means the government loses revenue in times of high commodity prices as royalty rates are fixed.

How much exactly does WA receive in royalties?

In 2015, the WA government released a report that analysed the state’s mineral royalty system. It stated that the system is designed to return to the community about 10% of the value of its minerals. Industry agreed in principle with the indicative 10%.

As you can see in the table below, gold is the second-highest royalty-earning commodity in the resource-dependent state. But this is estimated to fall from 2019-20, which is in line with the experience of Victoria, the other gold-producing state.

Coincidentally, the current price of gold is quite high, despite a slowdown since 2013. Prices are determined by the global market, subject to consumer sentiment on world events. Although there is trend of declining prices, the WA government’s move on royalties is driven more by its immediate debt concerns than by the gold price.
 

What is a royalty and how does it differ from company tax?

As early as 1400 the British Crown used the term “royalty” to describe any right or privilege retained by the crown. Today a royalty is a type of rent due to government as the resource owner (based on the volume, value or profits of minerals at the mine) in return for the privilege of extraction.

Crucially, a royalty is paid in addition to company tax. The justification for levying a royalty is that mineral resources are finite – extraction can only occur once.

WA uses two systems to collect mineral royalties. The first is a specific rate – levied as a flat rate per tonne produced. The second is “ad valorem” – calculated as a proportion of the “royalty value”, which is a form of market value of the mineral.

Specific rate royalties generally apply to low-value minerals and raw materials, such as salt, talc, clay and sand. These royalties are between 73 and 117 cents per tonne.

The ad valorem system has three general tiers of rates depending on the form in which the mineral is sold and used for higher-value commodities. Ore attracts a 7.5% royalty, concentrate (minerals that have been processed) 5% and metal 2.5%. The system takes into account price fluctuations and material grades in the royalty formula.

Gold is currently subject to the lower rate of 2.5%, and its industry has only been paying royalties since 1998.

The table below shows the mining royalty types and rates for the states and territories in Australia. Queensland and New South Wales have higher ad valorem rates for coal. Northern Territory has a royalty profit-based system, which attempts to address the lack of “tax neutrality” in royalties.

If not royalties, then what?

So we can see a number of difficulties in the royalty system and lack of options for government. But if we want to see what a better system would have looked like we need only recall the mineral resource rent tax (MRRT) introduced by the federal Labor government in 2012.

One of the basic ideas of the MRRT was that payments on the value of minerals are paid after net profit is determined. Revenue collections would adjust according to profitability, which negates the main criticisms of royalties.

But industry and state governments fought against the MRRT from the outset. The MRRT was repealed in 2014. It could have been done better, using both systems in tandem.

The result is that state governments are left with an imperfect royalty system that needs regular adjustment to rates when more revenue is needed, which is unavoidable as the community requires an equitable return on its resources. Industry will always argue against any increase to taxes.
 

Diane Kraal, Senior Lecturer, Business Law and Taxation Dept, Monash Business School, Monash University
 

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

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In a major boon to India’s powerful industrial group, the Adanis have been offered a $320 million “royalties holiday” in their prestigious coalmining project in Australia. The offer, reports Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), requires the Adanis to pay “just $2 million a year in royalties once the $21 billion project starts operating.”

Pointing out that “the royalty rate will then increase after several years”, quoting sources, ABC said, “Under the proposed agreement, the state would lose out on a total of $320 million in royalties”. The offer has come following Queensland state premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s negotiations with Adanis over the proposed royalties holiday.
Following the negotiations, the report quotes Palaszczuk as saying, "What we know about this project is that it is vital for regional jobs." The Carmichael project is expected to produce 25 million tonnes of coal a year in its first phase.

In a separate report, the British Guardian reports, it is a “$320m deferment of Carmichael coal export royalties”, adding, the Queensland government offer comes after “a former climate change adviser to the federal government said risks inherent in Australia’s largest proposed coalmine meant Adani could shelve its plans.”

The Guardian quotes Prof Will Steffen’s Climate Council report to say that a “carbon budget” approach to a global warming limit of 2C rules out Carmichael coalmine.
“As a catalyst for opening up neighbouring mines, it could lead to total emissions from Galilee basin coal matching ‘one of the top 15 emitting countries in the world’ and making up 130% of Australia’s total carbon pollution.”, the report adds.

Quoting from the report, the Guardian says, “The carbon budget for 2C allows for less than 10% of existing Australian coal reserves to be dug up, leaving ‘no basis for developing any potential new coalmines, no matter where they are or what size they are’. This takes into account the ‘most economical’ existing sources of coal worldwide.”
“There are two undeniable trends – an accelerating uptake of renewable energy and coal plant closures,” the report is further quoted as saying. “For Australia to fight these trends is
economically, socially and environmentally unwise and counterproductive.”

Steffen said his key observation from the report was that rising impacts at “modest temperature rises” – such as bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef – along with more extreme events and warming of 1.1C-1.2C already “really put the pressure on getting out of fossil fuels probably faster than most people have thought”.
Coal, which gives out “a lot more CO2 per unit of energy” than oil or gas, comes out as “the biggest loser” under a carbon budget, Steffen said, adding, “Basically, the story is we can still burn over half the conventional oil reserves, less than half the conventional gas reserves, but very little of the coal reserves, because coal emits a lot more CO2 per unit of energy.”

“The real question is how fast can we phase out our existing mines and existing power stations before their normal lifetime is up. How do we hasten the transition? So any talk of opening up a vast new area of coal is completely out of whack with what we know about what’s happening with the climate systems”, he added.

Related Articles:

1. Australian Govt Fails to Pass Native Title Changes: Setback to Adani
2. Adani: Indian Fishermen warn Australia against Environmental Impact ahead of Coal Mine Talks – ABC News
 
 

The post Adanis “offered” $320 million royalties holiday for Australian coalmining project, even as expert says it is “not viable” appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The $21bn Adani coal project has been the focus of strong opposition from environmental groups. Photograph: Paul Miller/AAP

More than 6,000 supporters contacted Bill Shorten’s office over the last two weeks in response to Labor’s apparent capitulation to pressure from the mining lobby and native title bureaucrats. It was an overwhelming and positive demonstration of concern and integrity by W&J supporters, and a demand to do what’s right, say the activists.

At the end of two weeks of sittings in which the Senate was expected to carry Brandis’ amendments, the Government failed to pass its Bill.
Local activists hav3 fought hard against this change to the native title law. They lobbied in Canberra, ran media, prepared legal analysis, made detailed submissions and appeared before the Senate Inquiry. They also met the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous Peoples.
The success of the campaign demonstrates just how much people in Australia care about Aboriginal rights and the protection of our lands and waters. And how much they don’t want Adani’s  mine proposal. 

This is a major setback for Adani, the Qld Government, and their backers in the mining lobby, who thought the amendments would help them circumvent the legal challenge that has been mounted to their sham land use deal.
The Adani Board is apparently set to make a decision within the next two weeks on whether to push on with the mine project. But it still faces  court actions. 

Right now, their purported ‘Indigenous land use agreement’ is worthless. It is clear this controversial Bill does not sit well with many Labor and crossbench MPs – and the incompetent rush with which Attorney General Brandis went about it added insult to injury.
 Labor's resistance on some elements of the bill, has been welcomed which has prevented its passage through the Senate, though it doesn't diminish their unacceptable support for the key measures.

And Labor are still ready to back dangerous native title changes. If the changes they do support are passed in the next sitting of Parliament, it will strip away protections and hand mining companies like Adani the means to divide and conquer us and traditional owners around the country.

Hence, say activists, the need to continue to fight against the winding back and removal of our rights.
The Parliament must go back to the drawing board on Native Title reform and deliver a just outcome that protects the integrity of our decision-making and our right to self-determination.

Please follow up with Bill Shorten, Mark Dreyfus and Pat Dodson to encourage them to turn their resistance into a positive new move for native title reform and land justice. And Cc us of course, so we can share your concerns with the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Activists have appealed for the campaign to continue.

The Government, Adani and the mining lobby are overconfident in their power to subordinate the rights of Indigenous peoples. What they don’t understand is how resolved Native activists are, and how much support in the community they have, to defend their rights.
Now that the Turnbull Government’s divisive Native Title amendment bill is languishing in the Senate, activists have sworn  redouble efforts. They have vowed not to have tjeir rights violated by a land use deal that they do not agree to, which would open the way to the mass destruction of their country. 

(Adria Burragubba & Murrawah Johnson for the Wangan & Jagalingou Traditional Owners Council)
 

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Here is how the Australian’s are fighting Adani, the Indian multinational conglomerate seeking to build the world’s biggest new coal mine in central Queensland’s Galilee Basin – the Carmichael mine. Adani’s proven track record of alleged environmental destruction, human rights abuses, corruption and illegal dealings should sound a stern warning for the Indian government as well looking to do business with Adani at the expense of their own countrymen.

Below are excerpts from the reports relevant to India.

Adani’s sunken coal ship (allegedly) devastates tourism, beaches and marine life in Mumbai

In 2011, an unseaworthy Adani coal ship sank off the coast of Mumbai, causing a massive oil spill and spilling 60,054 metric tonnes of coal into the ocean. Adani did nothing to clean up the mess for five years, as the spill destroyed mangroves, polluted beaches, and caused serious damage to the local marine environment and Mumbai’s tourism industry.

In 2016 Adani and others were found liable for the spill and for failing to clean it up, and were fined the equivalent of AU $975 000.

The consignment of 60054 MT of coal has caused marine pollution and continues to be a cause and concern for environmental pollution. The Respondents are defaulting entities which have not complied with law and have adopted a most careless and reckless attitude in relation to protecting the marine environment.
– Key finding of the National Green Tribunal’s judgement

Adani (allegedly) breaks the law to destroy environment in Mundra

“Irreversible and irreparable damage has been done to the area by the Adani Port and it is difficult to monitor the extent of the damage today. The mangroves have been destroyed and it has created an environmental disaster. The fisherfolk and common people affected by this degradation cannot fight such a big company.”
– Mahesh Pandya, an Ahmedabad-based environmentalist.

In the coastal town of Mundra in India, Adani operates one of the world’s largest coal-fired power plants. Investigations of the Mundra project by Indian officials, independent committees and documentary film crews reveal a record of environmental destruction, harm to local communities, and a failure to comply with environmental regulation and development permits.

Adani (allegedly) illegally cleared 75 hectares of protected mangroves, flattened sand dunes, dredged the ocean, and blocked waterways. These activities created a diminished and diseased fish population, turned the groundwater saline, and flooded a village.

The outcome for the local villagers was catastrophic. Having traditionally relied on fishing and farming to survive, they are now left with barren land and oceans — their fish stocks decimated.

Villagers reported Adani using bribery and intimidation to silence anyone who tried to challenge them.

Adani deprive 80 families of access to their fishing grounds at Hazira Port

Adani had no approval to begin work at their Hazira Port when they started illegally wiping out mangroves and claiming land. They blocked access to traditional fishing areas for 80 fishing families from the village of Hajira. Further, they destroyed mangroves and allegedly destroyed the habitat of a critically endangered bird species.

In January 2016 Adani was ordered to pay $4.8 million AUD for compensation and restoration and had their environmental approval revoked.

Threats and alleged police intimidation in land grab in Jharkhand
Media reports from India reveal Adani is using police intimidation, bribery and threats to dispossess people of their land in Jharkhand — where the company want to build two power plants.

Villagers and government officials say the Jharkhand Government has (allegedly) deliberately undervalued local villagers’ land to allow Adani to acquire the land at a fraction of the land’s real value. One legislator raised the issue in state assembly, contending landowners are expected to receive about one tenth of the value of their land.

Community meetings on the sale of the land have been surrounded by a heavy-handed, intimidating police presence.

Bribery and illegal exports in Karnataka

Adani (allegedly) engaged in broad-ranging bribery to conceal the illegal export of 7.7 million tonnes of iron ore. In 2011, the Ombudsman of the Indian state of Karnataka investigated the corruption, and discovered a staggering scale of bribery.
Adani had (allegedly) bribed:

• the police,
• local politicians,
• customs officials,
• the State Pollution Control Board,
• the Port Department,
• the Weight and Measurement Department,

in return for facilitating and hiding their illegal exports.

Also, Adani routinely accepted iron ore from traders who were not permitted to supply the ore. The Ombudsman concluded that this scam, in which Adani was a major player, resulted in the illegal export of around 7.7 million tonnes of ore between 2006 to 2010.

Black Money

Like big power companies in Australia, Adani are perfectly happy to s….. their customers to inflate their profits. They lied about the cost of imported coal and equipment in order to evade tax and trick regulators into letting them charge Indian consumers much higher prices for their coal-fired power. Their gas supply arm was also found guilty of abusing its market power to overcharge its customers. Adani even (allegedly) colluded with a state power company to drive up prices in the midst of a power shortage crisis.

Six Adani Group companies are under investigation for lying about the quality and, hence value, of coal imported from Indonesia, allowing them to get away with charging higher prices, demanding public handouts, and driving up costs for Indian electricity customers. There is solid evidence that they’ve already ripped off their customers to the tune of over $200 million AUD.

Adani is also under investigation for a billion-dollar fraud, exaggerating the value of equipment imports into India by over 60%. Adani allegedly used an offshore holding company in Mauritius to siphon off much of the extra money from inflated invoices.

The Mauritius holding company is managed by Vinod Shantilal Adani, the older brother of Gautam Adani, and Chairman of the Adani group. Vinod is the sole director of a number of Singapore companies that own Adani subsidiaries in Australia. These companies are ultimately owned by a company registered in the Cayman Islands.

All evidence gathered suggests that the total value declared for the goods imported was Rs 9,048.8 crore ($1.7 billion AUD) whereas the actual value was Rs 3,580.8 crore; a difference of Rs 5,468 crore which has been siphoned ($1.07 billion AUD).

Mate’s rates – undue benefit from political connections

Adani chairman Gautam Adani and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi are old friends. Modi even travelled in an Adani-branded private jet during his election campaign. And it turns out Adani isn’t afraid of calling in favours.

While Modi was Chief Minister of Gujarat, Adani acquired vast swathes of land from farmers and locals in Mundra at a fraction of market value. It left locals across 14 villages dispossessed, and Adani clear to start construction.

Media reports revealed that the government sold 14,305 acres of land at Mundra to Adani at between 1 and 32 rupees per square metre (between 3 and 60 cents AUD), far less than offered to companies doing comparable projects.

Further, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India found that two pieces of forest land (1,840 hectare and 168.42 hectare) had been incorrectly classified, resulting in yet another undue benefit to Adani.

Price-gouging energy customers during power shortages in Gujarat

In 2013, the people of Gujarat were suffering from power shortages. At the same time, Adani was (allegedly) colluding with the local power authority to gouge prices and rip people off by providing short-term power at extremely high prices.

Adani’s competitors lined up to supply the people of Gujarat cheaper, long-term electricity but their tenders were blocked by the power authority. This resulted in massive price-hikes and ensured the only energy available was the highly expensive, short-term supply provided by Adani. Adani’s competitors subsequently brought litigation against the power authority for the price-gouging.

In 2014, Adani was found guilty of using its dominant market position to impose unfair conditions on gas customers. They were ordered to change their gas supply contracts and pay $4.8 million AUD.

Adani accused of deliberately ripping off taxpayers and laundering money while trading in cut and polished diamonds and gold jewellery

A special investigative unit of the Indian tax department (the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence) spent over a decade investigating Adani for laundering money and dodging $195 million AUD in taxes.

One of the more audacious alleged attempts to dodge taxes and hide the proceeds involved the trade of rough-cut diamonds and gold jewellery. Adani appears to have set up a complex web of front companies specifically to fleece Indian taxpayers by misusing various government export incentive schemes. Adani then attempted to hide its illicit profits by storing imported diamonds in a bond, then re-exporting them at artificially inflated prices.

The overwhelming weight of evidence collected by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence was upheld in a civil court case, although it was later dismissed when the department actually tried to make Adani pay the money back.

“…it was pernicious and blatant misuse of the provisions of the Scheme…This Court…cannot come to the aid of such petitioners/exporters who, without making actual exports, play with the provisions of the Scheme and try to take undue advantage thereof.”

Adani’s assets lead to tax havens

Adani’s corporate structure is deliberately convoluted and opaque. There are 26 Adani subsidiaries registered in Australia, 13 of which are ultimately owned through the Cayman Islands.

The Carmichael rail line that Adani are seeking a $1 billion taxpayer loan for, is ultimately owned by an Adani entity operating out of the  Cayman Islands, a notorious tax haven. This presents a clear risk that public money will be siphoned offshore with no returns for the Australian taxpayer.

The ownership of the Abbot Point coal port is so shrouded in deception and confusion that it remains unclear who actually owns it.

There are massive discrepancies between what Adani says in India and what it says in Australia about the ownership structure of Abbot Point. But one thing is clear — Adani is lying to someone.

Accounts lodged in India have removed Abbot Point from a publicly listed Adani company and attributed ownership of the coal port to a private Singapore company, ultimately owned by an Adani family entity in the Cayman Islands. However, Australian financial accounts suggest the listed Indian company retains ownership of Abbot Point.

The absence of correct information about the ownership of Abbot Point may amount to misleading or deceptive conduct.

Dodgy financial statements

Adani’s most recent financial report lodged with ASIC did not disclose its immediate parent company and provided no detail about the actual or potential transfer of the ownership or control of Abbot Point from an Indian based Adani entity to one based in Singapore (also a known tax haven).

Deaths, illness and exploitation at Adani worksites

Exploiting workers in Gujarat

An explosive Fairfax Media investigation uncovered reports of serious exploitation of Adani’s workforce, including the (alleged) use of child labor and underpaid workers, during construction of a luxury housing project in Gujarat.

Read more here

Labourers were forced to live in makeshift houses with dirt floors, no running water, and no toilets. The sanitary conditions were so dismal that workers suffered several outbreaks of cholera from contaminated drinking water.

Adani’s workers were underpaid and overworked. Almost a quarter were paid less than the minimum wage of $4 a day, and some were not paid at all — Adani forcing them to wait for months to get paid, while they lived on a pathetic $9 a week ‘food allowance’.

A 12 year old boy said he was paid about $2.60 a day to carry water to the labourers for 12 hours a day, six days a week.

Adani avoided complying with state and federal laws by outsourcing their labour to multiple contractors.

Deaths in power plants

In 2016 a hot water pipeline burst at Adani’s coal fired power plant in Mundra, burning 21 workers. Seven of whom later died as a result of their injuries.
Read more here

There have been several reports of accidents and deaths at another Adani power plant in Tirora which suggest the safety standards are very lax. In September 2014 a worker was killed in a blast, and just a few months later another worker was killed after a structure collapsed while air-conditioning units were being installed.
Read more here

In 2012 another labourer was killed and two others critically injured after being trapped under falling pipes.
Read more here

Conclusion
This isn’t a company that has a chequered past, or a slightly blemished record. This is a company which has proven itself (allegedly) corrupt, destructive and deceitful to its core.

It has no regard for its own workers or the law, much less the environment or the local communities it works in. It operates with a vicious mentality where human or environmental damage are par for course.

The agreements and commitments it makes appear worthless. This is a company that doesn’t hesitate before breaking the law, contract conditions or moral boundaries in its reckless pursuit of profit.

Adani’s proven track record of (alleged) environmental destruction, human rights abuses, corruption and illegal dealings should sound a stern warning for any government looking to do business with Adani.

If you are interested in finding out more about which particular Adani entity is culpable for, or stands accused of, the various crimes detailed in this report, please click here to download a detailed legal research briefing from Environmental Justice Australia and Earthjustice.

The original report can be read here – The Adani Files

This article was first Published on GreatGameIndia.com
 

The post #AdaniFiles – Short History Of A Dangerous (Allegedly) Criminal Organization, Environmental Justice Australia Report appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Spokesperson for W&J Adrian Burragubba said, “The document Adani is trying to pass off as an Indigenous Land Use Agreement (ILUA) with our people is illegitimate. We launched action last year to defeat this dodgy deal and we are now taking decisive action in the Federal Court to have this fake agreement struck out”.

Burragubba said, “We have put evidence before the National Native Title Tribunal to prove that Adani does not have an agreement with W&J for its mine of mass destruction, which will destroy our ancestral homelands and waters, the cultural landscape and our heritage.”

He added, “Three times we have rejected any deal with the Indian mining conglomerate. Now Adani are on the back foot and have run crying to the Queensland Resources Council and the Federal Attorney General, asking them to do their bidding by pushing through an ‘Adani amendment’ to the Native Title Act.”

Burragubba claimed, his organization has come to know about Adani's move to amend the law from former Federal Resources Minister Ian MacFarlane, who “boasted at a Townsville business breakfast last week that he has spoken to his ‘good mates in Canberra’ about amending native title law.”

He alleged, “This is just additional proof that the Turnbull government is in bed with the Indian billionaire Gautam Adani and the Queensland mining industry.”

Representing W&J, lawyer Colin Hardie said, “Adani and the mining industry are trying to manufacture a sense of crisis and appear desperate to force the Federal government to rush through changes to the Native Title Act to suit their interests.”

The Native Title Act requires all members the Registered Native Title Claimants (RNTC) to sign the ILUA, which is a voluntary agreement between a native title group and others about the use of land and waters, for any changes.

At a meeting of the indigenous group called by the industry group, said W&J, over “200 of those in attendance were people not previously identified as W&J people”, adding, worse, some members of the RNTC refused to sign the purported ILUA – the reason why the Adani is seeking to amend the Act.

Meanwhile, an Australian not-for-profit legal practice group based in Melbourne, Environmental Justice Australia (EJA), has come up with an Adani Brief, which it has forwarded to the Australian governments and potential financiers seeking to back Adani’s coalming project, saying such a move “may expose them to financial and reputational risks.”

Giving details of the Adani Brief, EJA lawyer and report author Ariane Wilkinson said, “The extremely concerning international track record of the Adani Group in India raises serious questions about whether they should be allowed to do business in Australia.”

The report, among other issues, focuses on sinking of a ship carrying Adani coal, which saw oil and coal spill off Mumbai’s coast, damaging tourism, polluting the marine environment and attracting a AU$975,000 court fine; and constructing Hajira Port without approval, destroying habitat, claiming land and blocking access to fishing communities, which resulted in a court order to pay AU$4.8 million for compensation and restoration.

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