Koodankulam Update: Repression Continues

The following article is written by Arun Kaliraja from the May 17th Movement and a close supporter of New Socialist Alternative (CWI-India). The article is an update on the continuing repression faced by the people of Idinthakaria and surrounding areas for stalling the commissioning of the nuclear plant, and the virtual silence in the mainstream media on the latest developments there.

Editors
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Japan which was deriving 30% of its electricity needs from nuclear power plants shut down its last nuclear reactor on 5th May this year. On the other hand, in a nation which derives 3-5% of its total electricity needs from nuclear energy, the struggle to shut-down a nuclear plant has faced unprecedented repressions from the state machinery. The Police has filed 107 FIR’s against 55,795 people. 6800 people have been charged with “sedition” and/or “waging war against the State.”

Fresh protests started in Koodankulam on 1st May after the government decided to load the nuclear fuel in the plant even without giving basic safety mock evacuation drills to the nearby villages within the 30 km surrounding area. It is one of the many violations of the International standards that the government is not worried about. More than 330 people have gone on a hunger strike out of which about 300 are women. Around 24,000 voters ID cards have been surrendered in protest against government handling of the protests.
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The mainstream media has been largely silent on the protests that are happening in Koodankulam. The general public in Tamil Nadu is fed with the news of negotiations between the state and central government regarding the share of Tamil Nadu in the electricity generated in the Koodankulam power plant. As P. Sainath beautifully puts it, the media are in a “structural compulsion to lie”. Having integrated themselves into the free market the media is no more in a position to take sides with the people and their rightful protests.

Its times like these when the entire concept of bourgeoisie democracy, where people appear in the scene once in five years and its pillars legislative, executive, judiciary and the press have to be put to ruthless criticism and analysis in front of the people who have dared to challenge the giant state apparatus. The mechanical view of democracy where numbers decide, who is going to rule for the next couple of years, not by the will of the people, but by the will of that class which orchestrates every action of the state. In the issue of nuclear power the entire chapter of capital flow in the name of nuclear fuel and nuclear power plant has been kept away from the people. All that the people are told are “You need power!!”,”We cannot live without electricity”,”Its essential for the nations development”.

Only when the nuclear issue is analysed within a broader picture of class and imperialism can we understand the role of any technology in any class society. “.. technique and science develop not in vacuum” Trotsky said in one of his lectures “but in human society, which consists of classes. The ruling class, the possessing class controls techniques and through it controls nature.” (Trotsky Radio, Science, Technique, and Society)

The anti-nuke protesters in the Koodankulam will experience yet more repression from state. Democracy under capitalism is not meant for the an open dialogue between the state and the citizens. Its a cloak to the hide “dictatorship of capital” !!!!

Arun Kaliraja

Bangalore