April 19, 2012
Mathrubhumi weekly has published a cover story on the ongoing Kudankulam nuclear power plant protests. Haunting photographs of a few moms who are in the frontline of this battle.
A battle fought in the purest Gandhian non-violent way.
A battle that has been deliberately ignored by Indian media which is working as not watchdogs but hunting dogs of the government, both state and central.
A battle that has risen above caste and religious barriers.
The fight of a land....under the leadership of women...mothers, sisters, daughters...without facebook, orkut and twitter...but with speeches and poems in Tamil thundering from the dais...to inspire, to sustain.....for the right to live.
The government has tried almost all the cheap tricks in the book against its own people in this matter. They tried dividing the people along caste lines infiltrating the camps with spies. Mullaperiyar dam issue was brought up to ensure that people of Kerala didn't join wholeheartedly in the protest though Thiruvananthapuram falls well within the range in case of a disaster at the plant.
Promises of wealth under the guise of a 500 crore development package was made to the Panchayats. The local government leaders refused. Justice was more important to them than money. The politicians in Chennai and Delhi couldn't understand that attitude at all. How can anything be more important than money?!
Rolling blackouts lasting 18 hours a day were imposed on the state to justify the need for a nuclear power plant. But poor people are not automatically idiots. That is just a capitalist delusion. When sustainable, renewable wind farms on either side of the proposed nuclear powerplant are already generating more electricity than the plant's capacity, only the amply greased palms will continue to write about the "need" of nuclear energy for the state's development.
The protestors, fighting for their life and livelihood, don't expect any sympathy or support from any political party. When the local elections was announced, Chief Minister Jayalalitha took a very friendly stance. But as soon as the voting ended, she order the arrest of over 200 of the agitation's leaders. And she is called "Amma"! She is anything but that...
Aamir Khan is launching a national TV show focused on the grass root problems and progress of the nation. I don't think poor, dark people, especially "Saala Madrasis" from south of Tamil Nadu will make good national TV. So Kudankulam won't be on his radar of "problems." After all, Abdul Kalam himself refused to meet the protestors but dutifully wrote a pseudoscientific center spread on The Hindu newspaper about the glories of nuclear energy. Taking of glamorous supporters, one would have thought superstar Rajnikanth would weigh in on the matter.If only his gurus showed him some divine vision.
Incidentally, Rajnikanth is in Thiruvanathapuram busy doing motion capture shots for a song in his upcoming movie, Kochadiyan. Deepika Padukone is also in the Kazhakoottam studio.
One would have thought that a protest like Kudankulam which has been forsaken by the Congress and the regional parties of Tamil Nadu is fertile ground for the Communitst party to jump in. Veteran leader, V. S. Achudanandan was ready to visit the site and participate. But the party in Kerala has forbidden him. You see, the nuclear plant is built by the Russians. Though communist party is ardently against belief systems, they strongly believe that in Russia everyone continues shits gold and pees honey even after the fall of the Soviet empire. So nothing must be done against a nuclear power plant with Russian technology even if it is built less than two kilometers away from a government housing colony and is commissioned without doing any safety mock exercises whatsoever.
Talking for Russians, Siberian dance troupe Larisa performed in the city yesterday evening. Free tickets were available in advance at the Russian culture center. I had picked up two assuming that tickets meant limited seating. Much horror on reaching the venue yesterday. For a hall that can seat 600, 6000 tickets seam to have been sold. Those who had managed to find seats were left struggling to keep their faces away from the butts of those standing beside and craning their necks to see the stage over the heads of those standing in front. The photographs of the dancers rehearsing at the beach, published by the leading dailies yesterday, clearly worked. I would have assumed the organizers had better sense than give away so many extra tickets. They hadn't. I left before the show.
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