The struggle against the Koodankulam nuclear project in India

[English below: background information, Updates, addresses to protest and to show solidarity]

De strijd tegen het Koodankulam kernenergie-complex in India

De bevolking in het zuiden van India voert al jaren actie tegen de bouw van een groot kernenergie-complex waarvan de eerste reactor eind vorig in bedrijf had moeten komen. Dat is uitgesteld, maar repressie is groot en het klimaat lijkt rijp gemaakt te worden voor meer geweld tegen de antikernenergie-beweging.

In het dorp Idinthakarai zijn duizenden mensen om te protesteren tegen de bouw van de zes Russische reactoren in Koodankulam. Sinds enkele dagen is het gebied door de politie hermetisch afgegrendeld: er worden geen levensmiddelen meer het gebied ingelaten en ook pers wordt buitengesloten.

De strijd tegen Koodankulam begon al in de jaren 80, maar intensiveerde vorig jaar sterk na Fukushima en de mededeling dat de eerste reactor eind 2011 in bedrijf zou worden genomen.

Hieronder in het engels een langer artikel over de strijd van de lokale bevolking en de staats-repressie met updates uit het gebied zelf. Aan het eind nog een aantal links naar eerder verschenen artikelen.

Update 17 september 2012: 4 doden bij protesten!
Ondertussen zijn er 4 doden gevallen bij de protesten tegen het opstarten van de Koodankulam reactoren in Zuid India. De 'leider' van de people's Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE), SP Udayakumar (Kumar voor vrienden, waar we ons toe rekenen) is blijkens de laatste berichten ondergronds gegaan. Hoewel er begin vorige week aanwijzingen waren dat hij zich wilde overgeven, hebben de bewoners van de dorpen in de buurt van de kerncentrale er heftig voor gepleit dat niet te doen en gezegd een arrestatie te zulle voorkomen. Medestanders vrezen een 'toevallige ontmoeting' met de veiligheidstroepen, waar bij Kumar 'op de vlucht' zal worden neergeschoten.

Nadat er vorige weekend 30.000 mensen demonstreerden rond de kerncentrale en de eerste dode viel door geweervuur van de politie tegen de geweldloze massa, is er de afgelopen week op diverse manieren vreedzaam geprotesteerd. Zo werden de rail naar de reactoren (de eerste van 6 Russische reactoren die daar gebouwd moeten aan worden) door duizenden mensen geblokkeerd. Vele duizenden mensen hebben twee dagen lang in zee gestaan onder dreiging van politietroepen op het strand. Foto's laten zien dat vliegtuigen slechts enkele meters over de mensen heen vliegen. Door de druk ervan viel iemand van een brug en overleed.

De belangrijke kranten in India vertolken eigenlijk vanaf het begin van de protesten de belangen en argumenten van de overheid: de protesten zijn rechtstreeks het gevolg van buitenlandse agitatoren en geld; de kerncentrales zijn veilig en noodzakelijk en de protesten zijn bedoeld om de economische groei van de staat India te saboteren. Nu ook is er weinig aandacht voor de repressie en wordt er opnieuw een hetze gevoerd tegen de bewoners van de regio (Tamils) en tegen de leiders van PMANE. Zo wordt het feit dat de demonstranten strandzand naar agenten hebben gegooid (terwijl ze werden neergeslagen met knuppels en onder schot werden gehouden) breed uitgemeten.

In een open brief hebben ondertussen meer dan 120 bekende Indiėrs opgeroepen de kerncentrale niet in bedrijf te nemen, alle arrestanten vrij te laten en spreken hun solidariteit uit met de lokale bevolking, voor het overgrote deel arme vissers. Lees bijvoorbeeld dit artikel van Praful Bidway op: www.dianuke.org/the-march-of-folly-hindustan-times/

Lees hier een PMANE-update (in het Engels) van 11 september

Protesteer en toon je solidariteit!
De Duitse afdeling van Amnesty International is een schrijf actie begonnen tegen de dreigende arrestatie van leden van PMANE. Lees hier meer

Stuur protestbrieven (in 't Engels):

  • * Calling on the authorities not to arrest the members of the People's Movement Against Nuclear Energy, and to drop the charges against them if they have been brought solely to silence the peaceful protests of the group and others.
  • * Urging them to respect the rights to freedom of expression and freedom of assembly of the peaceful protestors against the nuclear power plant at Koodankulam, in accordance with international law.
  • Adressen / Addresses:

    MINISTER PRESIDENT / PRIME MINISTER
    Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
    South Block, Raisina Hill
    New Delhi 110 00
    INDIA
    (Aanhef: Dear Prime Ministerr)
    Fax : (00 91) 11 2301 7931
    E-Mail: via website http://pmindia.nic.in/feedback.htm

    MINISTER PRESIDENT VAN TAMIL NADU / PRIME MINISTER TAMIIL NADU
    Ms. J. Jayalalitha
    Fort St George
    Chennai 600 009
    INDIA
    (Aanhef: Dear Chief Minister)
    E-Mail: cmcell@tn.gov.in

    SOLIDARITEITS BRIEVEN / LETTERS OF SOLIDARITY:
    Dr S. P. Udayakumar
    People's Movement Against Nuclear Energy
    Idinthakarai PO 627104
    Tamil Nadu
    INDIA
    E-Mail: drspudayakumar@yahoo.com

    KOPIE AAN / COPY TO:
    AMBASSADE INDIA
    H.E. Ms. Bhaswati Mukherjee,
    Ambassador of India to the Netherlands
    Buitenrustweg 2,
    2517 KD Den Haag
    E-mail: ambassador@indianembassy.nl


    [English]

    In the most southern part of India, Tamil Nadu, the local population is fighting the largest nuclear complex under construction in the world: Koodankulam. The state repression increased over the months and is expecting to increase further after a large police force is send to the village of Idinthakarai, ostensibly to ensure restart of construction.

    Although the protest originates from the 1980's it intensified dramatically last year after Fukushima and the announcement by the government that the first of six reactors would enter test-operation late 2011. Many thousands op people took to the streets and acted continuously against Koodankulam, resulting in postponing operation of the nuclear reactor. State repression has always been harsh, but is escalating since last year, against the non-violent activities of the People's Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE)

    People from and close to PMANE are expecting further escalation of state violence and violence induced and tolerated by the state from 'civil' groups. Several attacks have already taken place against spokespersons and delegations of the local people.

    The most important blame by government is that opposition against nuclear power is of foreign origin, led and financed by foreign groups which have a interest in fighting India's economic growth (for which they say they need nuclear power).

    Or as an statement issued by 'eminent citizens' on March 5, put it: "This [foreign hand] is part of a growing, dangerous, tendency to de-legitimize dissent. If we reduce genuine differences and disagreements with official positions to mere plots of 'subversion' by 'the foreign hand', there can be no real engagement with ideas, and no democratic debate through which divergences can be reconciled. Absence of debate on nuclear safety, itself a life-and-death matter, can only impoverish the public discourse and our democracy. The 'foreign hand' charge sounds especially bizarre because the government has staked all on installing foreign-origin reactors and tried to dilute the nuclear liability Act under foreign pressure."

    Meanwhile, bank accounts of 4 NGO's have been frozen (from catholic aid organisations), 77 western NGO's are on a watchlist, meaning for instance that it will be difficult to obtain visa (people from Fukushima who had already permission to enter India, where denied access) and a few people have been deported.

    But most important: the local fisherfolks, farmers, shopkeepers, Dalit workers, beedi-rolling women and others opposing the reactors are facing more and more repression.

    Following a resolution to re-open the nuclear complex, the government of Tamil Nadu has rushed a large contingent of police to the area - ostensibly to ensure that work begins at the plant. The forces now stand guard outside the village of Idinthakarai, disallowing movement into and away from the area. Protesters have however been using the sea and the dense water network to join their comrades protesting in Idinthakarai. The press has not been allowed entry, though there is still a flow of information from those with still active mobiles


    Here are a number of updates by S.P.Udayakumar, one of the spokespersons of the PMANE

    update 20 March 2012
    update 22 March 2012
    update 25 March 2012
    update 27 March 2012
    update 2 April 2012
    update 23 April 2012
    update 8 May 2012

    A number of articles with background information on the struggle against Koodankulam
    For more information and updates, please visit the website of DiaNuke.


    Koodankulam Update, March 20, 2012, 7:30 AM

    Police have arrested 18 men more at Koodankulam last night but nothing happened here at Idinthakarai at night. Some 5,000 women, men and children slept around St. Lourdes Church. Some 185 men and women and their Parish Priest Fr. Suseelan were arrested at Koottapuli village when they sat down by the side of the road protesting against the police peacefully. They are being held at Tirunelveli armed reserve camp. The other group of 9 people including our Struggle Committee members Adv. Sivasubramanian and Rajalingom, arrested yesterday and now charged with sedition including Sections 121, 121A and 153A, has been taken to Tirunelveli also and we do not know where they are being held. In the meantime, Muhilan, another leading activist of PMANE was arrested on his way to Idinthakarai and he is kept at the police headquarters in Tirunelveli.

    Police have clamped down Section 144 in our area prohibiting people from congregating in any manner. So no one can walk or move around. Despite this curfew, people keep coming to Idinthakarai by boats and on foot.

    There is an unprecedented deployment of police around Koodankulam and it is highly condemnable that the police are harassing the peaceful protesters to this extent. Some 15 of us (8 men and 7 women) including Pushparayan and myself are on indefinite hunger strike here at Idinthakarai demanding:

  • [1] the immediate release of our comrades,
  • [2] the withdrawal of the Tamil Nadu cabinet resolution,
  • [3] a thorough and complete probe of geologists, hydrologists and oceanographers into the safety issues of the Koodankulam nuclear power plant,
  • [4] release of the Inter-Governmental Agreement (IGA) signed secretly by the governments of India and Russia on liability in February 2008, and
  • [5] conduct safety drills and evacuation drills in the 30-km radius of the Koodankulam project.
  • There could be public health problems and food shortage in a few days here at Idinthakarai. We appeal to the people of Tamil Nadu to be aware of this assault on the Tamil community. We appeal to the people of India to be mindful of impending nuclear nightmares in our highly and densely populated country such as ours. We appeal to the people of the world to keep a watchful eye on the forceful implementation of a mega-nuclear project on our people without giving us any basic information about the project or conducting any public hearing. They are preparing to load uranium fuel rods into the reactor without conducting any safety or evacuation drills. This kind of Fascist development is taking our country to another round of New East India Companies and Neo-colonialism. God Save India!

    Please do everything you possibly can to condemn this police harassment and nuclear madness and to express your solidarity.

    Struggle Committee
    People's Movement Against Nuclear Energy


    Idinthakarai, update March 22, 2012

    The situation here is still grim. There are some 10,000 people from coastal and interior villages. Most of them are women including pregnant women and nursing women. I myself saw many nursing women feeding their babied sweetened water as there was no milk coming to the village. More people are coming by boats and on foot as the access roads are all blocked by police. There is no bus service to this place. There is no sanitary complex and women bear the brunt of it. No public health official has ever come to help the people.

    (…) That evening [March 21] the Superintendent of Police of Tirunelveli District called me on my mobile and asked me to surrender alone so that people would not be affected. I told him that I was all ready for that but the people here at Idinthakarai also wanted to get arrested along with me and they would not let me go alone. I proposed to the SP to send enough number of buses and two police officers so that there would not be any stampede or tussle and we all would board the buses peacefully and go wherever they wanted us to go. He would not accept that proposition and said in anger: "This is the last time I talk to you.'' There ended our conversation.

    That night the police officer who was on security duty at our SACCER Matriculation School outside Nagercoil town had received a phone call from the Kanyakumari District SP office to go away from the school. Then a group of vandals, obviously with the blessings of the police, had entered the school and destroyed it very badly. The compound wall was completely demolished and the gate damaged. They ransacked the school bus after tearing down the car shed's iron shutters. They had entered the KG classrooms and destroyed all the small little chairs which my children were using to sit on. They had broken all the tables and chairs and I do not understand why they punished my little children like this. The vandals had entered our school library and destroyed all the 12 glass bookshelves and tables and threw away the books. My 250 children are all avid readers and have been using our library extensively. This reminds me of the burning of the Public Library at Jaffna a few years ago.

    The governments and the police treat and speak of me as if I were Osama bin Laden and our people some mindless terrorists. We resent this inhuman and brutal treatment. Electricity, water, milk and other essentials have been cut for two days; people cannot go out of and come into Idinthakarai as there is brutal police control. We are surrounded by police and I truly feel like I am at Mullivaickal. We are a group of simple people who have been fighting nonviolently and democratically against an untested foreign reactor with all kinds of problems and hiccups. We have not done any harm to anybody or anybody's property in our eight-month long struggle. The whole country is proud of our people.

    The stalemate continues. There are protests happening all over the country and the state of Tamil Nadu. Whoever is farsighted enough to worry about the future of India's "ordinary citizens", our natural resources, the well-being of our progeny, the possibility of losing our freedom to the New Nuclear East India Companies and most importantly, the democratic fabric of our country support us. We thank them and you for standing with us. We are ready for any brutal police action but will not give up our nonviolent noncooperation campaign.


    Update 25 March 2012

    Dear Friends:

    Greetings! Pushparayan, the other 12 friends and I have become weaker and tired; but we are still able to sit up and talk to people. Today is the seventh day of the indefinite hunger strike. Nobody from the State Government or the Central Government has bothered to come and see us or talk to us. A medical team came to check our health day before yesterday (March 23) but no public health officials came and offered any help even though some 10,000 people have been congregating here at Idinthakarai every day since March 19th. Our friends from Idinthakarai have been cooking some simple meals for all these people and most of the people are sleeping here as there is the prohibitory order of 144 still in effect. They are scared of going out of this foot-ball stadium sized space in front of the St. Lourdes church. The police are waiting for me and Pushparayan to collapse so that we would go to an hospital for treatment and they could arrest us there. How cruel and anti-people our governments could become!

    In the meantime, the Tamil Nadu government has convened a meeting of some 13 Panchayat (local body) leaders to plan to distribute the 500-crore package the government has announced for the victims of nuclear development. The state police continues its crack down; they tried to arrest three men at Koodankulam and they ll managed to give a slip. The police go to some of the coastal villages and order them to go fishing in order to create a pictue of normalcy in the area. They also ask them not to carry any food by boat to Idinthakarai and threaten them with cases if they did. People defy this kind of intimidatory exercises.

    This is a struggle (but 'war' in the eyes of our opponents) between rich, famous, powerful, upper-class and upper-caste pro-mega-development folks and poor, unknown, powerless, lower-class and lower-caste pro-sustainable development masses. The governments here work for the profit of Russia and not for the people of India. The governments engaged in massive power cuts over the past few months in order to create a huge hatred against us and opposition to our struggle. Now that they have resumed work at the Koodankulam plant, the officials say they do not know how long it will take for electricity generation. Now people of Tamil Nadu know that Koodankulam is not the answer for our power crisis. The people of Tamil Nadu and India will wake up to many such realities soon with regards to Pechipparai dam water, reprocessing plant at Koodankulam, weapons facilities, atomic bombs etc.

    India is a highly- and densely-populated country and even a small mishap at a nuclear facility will create such a havoc and meyham for millions of people and jeopardize the survival and wellbeing of millions and millions of our brothers and sisters. We are not against the progress of our country and state but we feel that such a progress should be longstanding and sustainable for our future generations also. We have no moral authority to poison the resources of our future generations in order to produce electricity for us for 40 years. We say that let India be a world leader with creative and original ideas an d programs rather than the slave of Russia, United States and France.

    The governments here are taking up a new weapon now and that is our alleged links with Naxalites (Maoists). They are fabricating evidences and concocting conversations to establish that we have connections with Naxal youth and trying to portray us as a violent group. The whole world knows that we have been struggling for the past eight months in a nonviolent manner with absolutely no violence or terror. They will fail as they have in the "foreign hand" and "foreign money" accusations. The governments are desperately trying to provoke our people to prove their theory that "ordinary citizens" of our country do not have a mind of their own; they cannot think for themselves; they cannot stand up for their rights and entitlements in a nonviolent noncooperation cmapaign; and most importantly, these fishermen, Nadars, Dalits, Muslims, women and children are all dispensable for the growth of the Chennai-based and Delhi-based multi-billionaires. Well, that is the logic of globalization and that is what we vehemently oppose.

    People power or nuclear power? Moral power or money power? Citizens' power or State power? Which side you are on? The people of Tamil Nadu, and the people of India, please think of this!

    People here and I may die in this hunger strike or in a few years out of old age. But please think of the world, country, state you want to have for yourself and your progeny. That is what human politics is all about. I would leave the golden lines of Martin Niemoller, a German pastor and theologian for you to reflect on:

    First they came for the communists,
    and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.
    Then they came for the trade unionists,
    and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.
    Then they came for the Jews,
    and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew.
    Then they came for me
    and there was no one left to speak out for me.

    S. P. Udayakumar
    Idinthakarai
    March 25, 2012


    Idinthakarai Update, March 27, 2012

    Greetings! Ayya Pazha. Nedumaran, Vaiko, Thirumavalavan, Seeman, journalist Gnani and many many more good hearts have been asking us to stop the fast unto death immediately. Pushparayan, 13 of our comrades and I have been very very tired; three women fainted and were hospitalized yesterday.

    Rayan and I have some pain on our stomachs; and I have been feeling a bit dizzy. The government medical team checked on our health and found out that my pulse rate had come down. They wanted me to go to a nearby town for tertiary medical care but I refused to do that.

    We have been asking the government to talk to us and this has taken 9 days for them to depute the District Collector for talks. People have chosen ten representatives from ten coastal and interior villages to go and talk to the Collector.

    In the meantime, the police have charged all the 178 people from Koottapuli village with more serious case such as "waging war against the State" and denied us the opportunity to take them out on bail.
    Similarly, the other friends who are locked up in Cuddalur prison have also been re-arrested in more serious cases. The Indian State is hell bent on destroying us and sending a lesson to all the anti-nuclear, anti-globalization and other anti-government protestors around the country.
    The governments would pass all kinds of pro-foreigner and anti-Indian bills on crucial issues such as Food Security, Water, FDI on retail business and undertake dangerous anti-Nature and anti-Future projects and we all should keep quiet and fall in line.

    The simple question we want to ask all our Indian brothers and sisters is this: do we, Indian citizens, still have the right to oppose the government's policies, programs and projects peacefully and democratically? If so, why does the Indian State want to destroy us all with cases of sedition, waging war against the State and so forth?

    We have been fighting nonviolently without even a single case of violence or terror. We have not harmed or hurt or killed anybody; we have not damaged any private or public property. Then why are we being treated like this by the Indian State? Is it because our people are poor, lower caste, or most of them belong to minority communities such as Christians and Muslims? Please think of this.

    What kind of message is this brutal behavior of the State sending to our youth? They cannot use either violence or nonviolence to demand their rights and entitlements; they should not complain about anything and simply help the rich become richer.

    Some 70 percent of our people are poor; more than 50 percent of our people do not have toilets and basic human dignity; and some 46 percent of our infants are born malnourished and under-weight. Most of the political leaders, bureaucrats, scientists, military leaders and businessmen are robbing the people mercilessly. They are hoarding their ill-gotten wealth in Swiss banks; and they steal not just in lakhs or crores but in lakhs of crores. The poor people of India do not have even two square meals, and safe drinking water.

    It is high time we, the people of India, stood up and took our country back! Cooperatively, peacefully, nonviolently and democratically! Before it is too late and we are re-colonized by Russians, Americans, the French and others.

    Please save us from the cruel grip of the Indian State. We thank all our brothers and sisters who are already doing this all over the country. We need more people and more actions.

    S. P. Udayakumar
    27 March 2012


    Idinthakarai Update
    April 2, 2012

    On March 27, 2012 evening 7:30 PM, we gave up our indefinite hunger strike of 9 days after a credible team of mediators had a round of talks with the Tamil Nadu government officials at Radhapuram near here. They had accepted to release all our comrades from prison and withdraw all the false and serious cases against us.

    On March 29, 2012 at 9 AM, a team of Home Ministry officials from New Delhi descended on my family's home at Nagercoil and inspected our SACCER Trust's account for 12 hours both at home and again at the Government Guest House in Nagercoil. Our small Trust with hardly any money runs a very small school of 217 children. [It is interesting to note that the central government's and state government's teams inspected the Koodankulam nuclear power plant for hardly a few hours, and not 12 hours at a stretch.]

    On March 30, 2012, I received a letter from the Passport Officer in Madurai that I have to return my Passport as I have criminal cases against me. [I wonder if all the politicians, bureaucrats, scientists, military leaders and businessmen with criminal record have received such a request and I am approaching the court to verify this.]

    People's Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE)



    People's Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE)
    April 23, 2012, Press Release

    PMANE Announces Indefinite Hunger Strike from May 1, 2012 at Idinthakarai

    The People's Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE) plans to resume indefinite hunger strike from May 1, 2012, International Workers' Day. When we concluded our earlier hunger strike on March 27, 2012 at the behest of the Madurai Archbishop Most Rev. Peter Fernando and Mr. Arimavalavan's negotiations with the Tirunelveli district officials at Radhapuram, the authorities had agreed to

  • - release all our comrades from prisons unconditionally;
  • - withdraw all the false and foisted cases against tens of thousands of our people including sedition charges;
  • - institute an independent national committee to study the hydrology, geology and oceanography issues;
  • - conduct disaster management and evacuation exercises to all the people in 30 km radius from the KKNPP;
  • - share a copy of the secret IGA between the governments of India and Russia in 2008 on liability;
  • - divulge all the relevant info about the KKNPP nuclear waste and their management; and
  • - respect the democratic rights of our people to continue to oppose the KKNPP peacefully and nonviolently.

    Almost a month has passed after this negotiation, but no promise has been fulfilled so far. Mugilan and Sathish are still languishing in prison and more cases are said to have been filed against them. More than 56,000 people have been charged with false cases until December 31, 2011 including some 6,000 sedition cases. If we tally the cases that have been filed in the first quarter of 2012, the number must be way too high. This only proves how big our struggle is and how undemocratic and anti-people our governments are.

    Even those who have been released on bail are made to sign every day at distant police stations like dangerous criminals and are prevented from going to work. They are all living in poverty and misery.

    No step has been taken to withdraw all the false cases that are foisted on us; instead, fresh murder charges are framed against the leaders of the PMANE falsely.

    Besides the hydrology, geology, oceanography issues of the KKNPP, we have now to deal with the seismology issue also as the entire state of Tamil Nadu and the eastern coast of India were rocked by powerful tremors and temblors on April 11, 2012. Following the massive earthquake and the aftershocks on that day, there has been another major earthquake in Indonesia on April 20, 2012 night. These issues have to be researched thoroughly and truthfully before opening a major and controversial nuclear project such as the KKNPP in the affected area.

    The government authorities and the KKNPP officials are trying to scuttle the whole process of disaster training and evacuation exercises by roping in the cooperation of the local Panchayat presidents and by creating falsified records that such exercises had been done in these Panchayats. The KKNPP administration that never respected the local people and their leaders before are now trying to please these Panchayat presidents with the promised Rs. 500-crore package. Given the recent repeated earthquakes in Indonesia, even people beyond 30-km radius must be given disaster training.

    We hear recurrent rumors that there are serious problems in the reactor pressure vessel, and that there is a perennial water spring near the reactor building that plague the KKNPP project and that is why some 18 Russian scientists have been invited urgently to work on the project. The KKNPP officials must tell the people the whole truth about the problems involved in the delay of the project, present a White Paper on the total cost of the project and explain how much public money has been spent on all these recent visits of Russians and other PR exercises.

    We earnestly hope that the Government of India and the Government of Tamil Nadu will resume the negotiations with us, fulfill their commitments and avoid the planned indefinite hunger strike. We still hope that these governments work not just for the rich and powerful but are also interested in the wellbeing of the ordinary and unlettered citizens of India.

    The Struggle Committee
    People's Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE)


    India: Imminent clampdown on anti nuclear movement - Urgent Message from Idinthakarai
    by People 's Movement Against Nuclear Energy
    Tuesday 8 May 2012

    Curfew orders have just been promulgated in our area once again right after our planning meetings with the youth, women, community elders and the Idinthakarai village committee on May 8, 2012. Thousands of police personnel are being posted in and around Koodankulam in haste. We get reliable tips that the authorities are planning to clamp down our protest and arrest all of us, possibly tonight. Such a pre-dawn operation that the government usually does could be bloody as thousands of men, women and children from several villages are sleeping around the Church at Idinthakarai.

    This action may be planned to cover up a recent accident at the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNPP). It is said that two young men, Sivakumar and Esakkimuthu, were injured on May 4 in an alleged blast at KKNPP and they were admitted in a private hospital at Anjugramam. Dr. Tamilarasu who treated the men confirmed the accident according to a newspaper report (The Indian Express, May 8, 2012). One of the young men's fathers talked to the Puthiya Thalaimurai television on May 8, 2012 that he was not even allowed to see his son.

    On May 8, 2012, we also held a Press Meet at Idinthakarai at 4:00 PM in which we produced the ledgers with tens of thousands of signatures of people from some 60 villages opposing the KKNPP. This is a clear proof that the central and state governments are acting against the will of the local people and are thrusting the dangerous nuclear power project down our throats in an authoritarian and arrogant manner. We also produced some 24,000 voter ID cards that the people had surrendered in protest against the governments' callous attitude towards the 302 women and 35 men indefinite hunger strikers. As the Indian government and the state governments do not respect ordinary people's lives and interests in India, we also launched the "Respect India" Campaign along the lines of Mahatma Gandhi's "Quit India" campaign of 1942.

    The Tamil Nadu police have been harassing local people when they close their shops in support of our protests or when they travel to neighboring villages. The police take individual pot shots of the people, shoot group photos, take down the vehicle numbers, abuse with foul language and intimidate them. When a curfew was imposed earlier on our area by the Tamil Nadu government on March 19, 2012, the authorities divided the local communities by announcing a Rs. 500 crore bribery package to the local bodies, stifled news reports on us by silencing the media and isolated the people by distancing the Church.

    It is so strange and unfortunate that the central and state governments treat us, nonviolent and democratic Gandhian activists, as some kind of dangerous extremists. The hunger strikers are very weak and feeble but they refuse to give up without getting our demands fulfilled. Instead of talking to us, the Tamil Nadu government seems to be preparing for a highhanded behavior and violence to put us all down.

    Please contact the following officers and demand justice for our people:

    [1] Dr. R. Selvaraj, District Collector, Tirunelveli District, Tirunelveli. Phone: 91-462-2500828; Fax: 91-462-2500224; Mobile: 91-9444185000; Email:collrtnv@nic.in
    [2] Mr. V. Varadharaju; Phone: 91-462-2568031; Mobile: 91-9840970530; Email: digtinrg@yahoo.co.in
    [3] Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Fort St. George, Chennai 600 009, India; Phones: 91-44-25672345 (W); 91-44-25670215 (H); Faxes: 91-44-28133510; 25676929; 25671441; 28130787.
    [4] Mr. Debendranath Sarangi, Chief Secretary; Phone: 91-44-25671555; Fax: 91-44-25672304; Email: cs@tn.gov.in
    [5] Dr. Sheela Priya, Additional Chief Secretary; Phone: 91-44-25674234; Fax: 91-44-25675163. Email: cmcell@tn.gov.in

    The Struggle Committee,
    People's Movement Against Nuclear Energy


  • More information:
    The aftermath of Fukushima in India (Sept. 2011)
    People power vs Nuclear power (Oct. 2011)
    India: Thousands fast against Koodankulam (Nov. 2011)
    Koodankulam: crackdown on anti-nuclear activists and NGO's (March 2012)