The who’s who of mining are funding India’s political parties

by Raman Kirpal Sep 11, 2012

There are strings attached to every charity! A list released by Delhi-based NGO, Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), reveals that 26 of the top 50 companies, which made political donations to the Congress Party, are associated with mining of natural resources in one way or the other.

These companies belong to Jindal group of industries, Adani Group of Industries, Shyam group of industries, Essar group of industries, ACC and Ambuja Cements, Vedanta group of industries, Torrent Power Ltd, Salgaoncar, Chowgule, etc. Other companies listed are service providers, and provide logistics and infrastructure to these companies dealing with power generation, cement, steel, sponge iron and export of iron ore.

Thus, most of these companies require captive coal blocks, captive iron and bauxite mines. These companies are not only generous to the Congress, they are also liberally make political donations to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and other political parties, and seem focused on keeping the political class happy.

Representational image. Reuters

The Jindal Group alone holds control over 10 captive mines. The Jindals made a contribution of Rs 1.05 crore to the Congress. Essar has captive coal mines at Chakla and Karanpura districts in Jharkhand and its contribution to the Congress was Rs 75 lakh.

ACC and Ambuja Cement companies donated Rs 1 crore and Rs 2 crore respectively to the Congress war-chest. Both belong to the same management and they too have captive coal mines at Raniganj, West Bengal. They have cement plants at Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh.