Koodankulam Alert March 25 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



____________________________________________
S.P. Udayakumar, Ph.D.
* People's Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE)
* National Alliance of Anti-nuclear Movements (NAAM)
(For a Nuclear-Free India that has
No Deals, No Mines, No Reactors, No Dumps, and No Bombs)
Mobile: 91-98656-83735
Email: drspudayakumar@yahoo.com, spudayakumar@gmail.com