In the last few years, getting anywhere near Koodankulam has been a risk-filled affair. This Tamil Nadu town next to Kanyakumari looks and smells almost like a war zone. The police have barricades on every road. Visitors to the town are often stopped and asked bizarre, paranoid questions. Journalists, activists and visitors to the villages have even been unlawfully detained. Over this year I’ve made several sustained visits to Koodankulam and have been lucky to escape the nervous scrutiny of those defending the Koodankulam nuclear plant from aspersions.
I’ve been luckier still to spend time inside the village of Idinthakarai, the epicentre of the protest against the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KKNPP). Everyone who needs a refresher course in democracy should visit Idinthakarai. The people of Idinthakarai have organized themselves, educated each other and agitated for justice in the face of an enormous and self-righteous establishment.
Idinthakarai can seem, even after repeated visits, like a platonic ideal, the kind of dream Dr Ambedkar had. Groups of men and women sitting under the pandal facing the St Lourdes church have educated my ambivalent self about the tiniest of details about the nuclear plant, its risky location and technical flaws. I have seen their careful sifting of the lies and half-truths the government would like them to believe.
Regardless of all that, the government decided to do the sriganesham for the plant – make the plant go critical – on Saturday evening, 13 July. This was following the Supreme Court’s May judgement giving the green signal to the plant albeit with strict guidelines to be adhered to The nuclear authorities did not bother to share the final report with the petitioners or with citizens of this country. Consistent with their undemocratic modus operandi, they choose to give the reports to the SC in a sealed envelope secretly before commissioning the plant. Full story...
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I’ve been luckier still to spend time inside the village of Idinthakarai, the epicentre of the protest against the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KKNPP). Everyone who needs a refresher course in democracy should visit Idinthakarai. The people of Idinthakarai have organized themselves, educated each other and agitated for justice in the face of an enormous and self-righteous establishment.
Idinthakarai can seem, even after repeated visits, like a platonic ideal, the kind of dream Dr Ambedkar had. Groups of men and women sitting under the pandal facing the St Lourdes church have educated my ambivalent self about the tiniest of details about the nuclear plant, its risky location and technical flaws. I have seen their careful sifting of the lies and half-truths the government would like them to believe.
Regardless of all that, the government decided to do the sriganesham for the plant – make the plant go critical – on Saturday evening, 13 July. This was following the Supreme Court’s May judgement giving the green signal to the plant albeit with strict guidelines to be adhered to The nuclear authorities did not bother to share the final report with the petitioners or with citizens of this country. Consistent with their undemocratic modus operandi, they choose to give the reports to the SC in a sealed envelope secretly before commissioning the plant. Full story...
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