Yesterday, nine-year-old Stella was playing at her school grounds, well-protected by boundary walls. These would help shield her not just from the tidal waves on the other side, but also from the huge police build-up waiting to enter her village.
Stella is happy the scheduled examination at her school wouldn’t be held, for now. Like her, about 200 children in this fishing village have been missing their classes, while their parents, mostly fishing folk, stay away from the sea to protest against the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KNPP), being set up by Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCIL) and the Russian government.
The mood in Idinthakarai is calm, but uneasy. This tiny village on the coast of the Tirunelveli district, about 650 km from Chennai, has a population of 12,000-13,000. The village has made history of sorts, with reports of about 8,000 sedition cases filed against villagers here. An allegation frequently heard here is the villagers are waging war against the nation.
In the last one year, the police wasn’t allowed to step into the village. Though the villagers have recently given sleepless nights to about 4,000 policemen here, it is anyone’s guess whether this tiny village is capable of waging war against any government.
The protests here are primarily led by S P Uthayakumar, Mypa, Pushparayan and Father Jayakumar. It has been alleged the People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy, which is spearheading the protests, is funded by foreign agencies, as the plant is a collaboration between India and Russia.
Today, this village is completely isolated, with no access to electricity, water and other basic necessities. The situation is worsening on a daily basis. After a villager was killed in clashes between anti-KNPP protestors and the police in Tuticorin district on Monday, the scenario turned grave. People in a radius of 70-80 km said had the administration taken villagers into confidence, the situation would have been better.
Uncertainty and suspicion on the plant arose a year earlier, after a mock drill by KNPP led to panic among villagers.
The mock drill followed the disaster at a nuclear plant in Fukushima, Japan. A local journalist tracking KNPP said NPCIL had announced its plan for the drill in many newspapers. However, the only newspaper published in this district didn’t carry the announcement. “I don’t know whether it was a mistake or it was done intentionally,” he said. Lack of communication between KNPP and the villagers was the primary issue, he added.
Several attempts to contact the NPCIL chairman and managing director, as well as site director R S Sundar, failed. An official said the government had asked the authorities to stay away from the media.
Earlier, former KNPP site director Kasinathan Balaji had said, “The issue we face is a communication gap. We are not able to make the people understand for two reasons. First, they are not willing to listen to us and second, since nuclear science is a complicated subject, it is difficult to make anybody understand.” He denied all health- and safety-related allegations, the major concern of protestors. Balaji had earlier said 20 per cent of the total project expenditure was spent to ensure security.
Red carpet for activists
A few years earlier, when anti-nuclear activist S P Uthayakumar, who leads the protests against the nuclear plant, tried to enter Idinthakarai, he was beaten and thrown out of the village. However, after the mock drill, the villagers welcomed him here. On Tuesday, Uthayakumar, while addressing protestor at the village, said, “To avoid any harassment to you, I am going to let the police arrest me.” Hearing this, a group of fishermen rushed to the stage, carried him to the seashore and took him to an unknown location on a boat. The tussle between protestors and the government is only intensifying.
The government is determined the plant would start operations by October or November. Officials have said fuel loading would start in 48 hours. Uthayakumar, along with other protestors, however, said he would not let the plant begin production. Meanwhile, anti-KNPP protestors have started mobilising support across the state and the country. While fishermen from Rameswaram, Kanyakumari and Tuticorin are organising fasts and halting fishing activities, Anna Hazare and his supporters have also said they support the protests.
