The Hindutva social media continues to present the DMK especially as anti-god, anti-Hindu and anti-Brahmin. The strategy did not work in the past, it has not worked in the present, and would not work in the future, as a massive vote-getter, asserts N Sathiya Moorthy.
Blaming the Centre's "inaction" for the stalemate over the Koodankulam nuclear power plant issue, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Tuesday said her government was firm on suspension of the work on the controversial project till people's concerns were addressed.
Fuel is being loaded in the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant. Outside, the agitation continues, though to most observers it seems futile -- the fishermen continue to fast, stand in knee deep water one day and neck deep water the next day. A Ganesh Nadar reports
An anti-nuclear forum spearheading the stir against Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant on Monday said they would withdraw their protest if most locals favoured the project and demanded that the state government constituted panel visit all villages and towns affected by KNPP. "We hope the team comes to our villages, talks to our people, respects their feelings and takes a decision after considering the sentiments of the people."
Union Minister V Narayanasamy on Saturday said it is the responsibility of the Centre and the Tamil Nadu government to allay fears of locals over the Koodankulam nuclear power plant and asked religious groups not to instigate anti-nuclear protesters.
Acting swiftly after Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa accused the Centre of "abdicating" its responsibilities, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday spoke to her seeking her guidance to resolve the issue arising out of protests over the Koodankulam nuclear power project.
As the protest against Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant in the Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu continued to gather momentum with over 20,000 people staging a relay fast on Wednesday, the state government invited representatives of the core group spearheading the stir for talks.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Sunday asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to advise Kerala not to build a new dam across Mullaperiyar and sought a financial package for the state.
The Centre is looking into Tamil Nadu's demand for allocation of entire power to be generated from the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant, Minister of State in the PMO, V Narayanasamy on Friday said.
In an exclusive conversation with rediff.com's A Ganesh Nadar, KNPP director K Balajee says his team worked 15 hours a day to get the plant ready, and now they are sitting idle thanks to the escalating protests.
Breaking the brief truce, more than 7,000 people on Sunday observed a token fast against the Koodankulam nuclear power plant and vowed to intensify the struggle if the government did not scrap it.
The 11-day-old fast by locals demanding the scrapping of the Koodankulam nuclear power project was called off on Wednesday after Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa agreed for a cabinet resolution to request the Centre to halt the project.
Terming as "unfortunate" the resistance to the commissioning of Indo-Russian joint venture Koodankulam nuke plant in Tamil Nadu, Russia on Tuesday said all safety norms have been taken into consideration in view of the Fukushima accident in Japan.
Bogged down by the over month-long agitation by local people led by anti-nuclear activists, commissioning of the first reactor of the controversial Koodankulam Nuclear Power Project has been delayed by three months.
The Jeddah-bound vessel from Singapore, which was detained on October 2, by Coast Guard, was released after a thorough inquiry by officials from Customs, Coastal Security, Intelligence Bureau and police.
The CPI wants the Prime Minister to explain in Parliament why he failed to sign a nuclear pact with Russia during his recent trip, after reports that such a deal was planned.
'I don't think we will need to support or get support from the Congress. I hope there is no such political exigency. The Congress will be gone from the political scene. There is no lesser evil. The BJP and Congress are the two sides of the same evil coin,' anti-Koodankulam nuclear plant activist and new AAP member S P Udaykumar tells Rediff.com's A Ganesh Nadar.
Anti-nuclear activist S P Udayakumar, who has been called a threat to the economic security of India by the Intelligence Bureau, speaks to A Ganesh Nadar.
The Centre has zeroed in on Kovalam village in Kanyakumari district for a new port, but fishermen's protests could derail this plan.
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In one village, a woman asks, "They are always showing cash seizures on television, you think some of it will escape and we will get money as usual?" "Only 1 percent of cash is actually seized, the rest has arrived, you don't worry," a party worker assures her. Rediff.com's A Ganesh Nadar reports on the election in the southern-most tip of the country.
I believe this is what really happened at the Congress Working Committee on Wednesday.
'We see different people bringing different resentments and we feel this is the result of the deprivation of an identity because of the reintroduction of Hindi, the Hindutva overtones in the national discourse, the betrayal of the Dravidian parties and even small things like the Devanagiri script in the Rs 2,000 note.'
The 'Raj Bhavan/Nakkeeran Gopal case', in which editor S Gopal was arrested in the morning and set free by the court in the afternoon, is not the first one where the Tamil Nadu's once-reputed police force is seen as faltering in the eye of the law, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Muzzling NGOs is unbecoming of a democracy. Self-confident democracies encourage, indeed applaud, the involvement of citizens' associations, including NGOs, in social and political decision-making and development planning. Instead, our paranoid government bullies and terrorises them, says Praful Bidwai.
Even without the ISI, ISIS and Al Qaeda, Tamil Nadu, otherwise acknowledged as a progressive and developed State in the Indian context, has been at the centre of 'multiple militancy' for decades now, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
'The government is using the Intelligence Bureau to go after NGOs.' 'It is not only the NDA, the UPA also didn't like NGOs.' 'NGOs predominantly work with the poor. So, when you cancel an NGO, the affected are the poor, the Dalits, the tribals, the street children and the marginalised.'
In a spontaneous outpouring of grief, thousands of people bid an emotional farewell to former President APJ Abdul Kalam who was on Thursday laid to rest with full state honours in his home town here amid chants of "Bharat Mata Ki Jai".
R S Sundar, the site director of KNPP, on how the plant is producing 1,000 MW of nuclear power, the largest in the country.
'Not a single person I spoke to there believes that the Kundalkulam plant is safe.'
The government must justify why we need to buy foreign reactors when we have developed up to 700 MWe unit-size pressurised heavy water reactors, a design which can be easily extended to 900 to 1000 MWe unit size. Why can't the 'Make in India' philosophy apply to indigenous nuclear reactors, more than 18 of which have been designed, built, and being operated by Indian engineers, asks Dr A Gopalakrishnan.
India's nuclear establishment is continuing its march of folly at the expense of safety in the false belief that atomic power is the energy of the future. It's not. Nuclear power is in relentless global decline, says Praful Bidwai.
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