Electoral politics only way to revive the agitation: Anti-Kudankulam activist Udayakumar

THIRUNELVELI: Radhapuram is the taluka where the mighty Kudankulam nuclear power plant is located, and fighting the two mighty Dravidian parties here, is SP Udayakumar, who led a four year protest against the project, a few years ago.

An erstwhile Aam Aadmi Party member Udayakumar has floated a new party Pachai Thamizhagam (green tamil nadu) that is contesting one seat in the state with its campaign centered around "inefficient disaster management system of governments in India."

The 56-year-old activist tells people in the constituency, "a government that couldn't save its people from floods would not lift a finger in case a Fukoshima or Chernobyl type accident were to happen here."

"You can at least see the floods, people can help you even if government doesn't. You cannot do that with radiation. If an accident occurs, your life, house,memories everything will be gone," he stresses

There are only five people part of his canvassing team compared to the hordes who are campaigning for the DMK and AIADMK. "We are not contesting to win, but to make people aware of how dangerous nuclear power plants are," he clarified.

Udayakumar said "insult and intimidation" by the state government forced him to contest elections after his "supporters who were slapped with over 2000 sedition cases decided to give up on the cause." The Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant project has been running for over two years now and the centre has also revealed plans to expand it further.

Udayakumar said the Kudankulam struggle collapsed because "people were made to run everyday for court cases in Valliyoor (neighbouring town). It broke them mentally. The government wanted just that," he said accusing all parties for not caring enough.

"People may criticise me for taking the electoral route but what option do I have to keep this struggle going?" he said, pointing to the first paragraphs in his party's manifesto dedicated to promises to fight against nuclear plants.

He alleged that a smear campaign was run against him by his dissenters calling him an "agent who was operating on foreign funds." "When we were protesting, the government cut power supply in the state which led people to think we were responsible for it. The plant was not even functioning then but it was just to turn the people against us."

Udayakumar said he quit AAP as the party leadership refused to take a stand on nuclear reactors. "They didn't want to hurt the middle class that thinks highly of such projects." He added that he had joined the party based on an invitation from the party, after meeting Prashant Bhushan and Arvind Kejriwal. "One of my initial conditions was also a Tamil name for the party which they had agreed to."

The activist said he had no hopes from the BJP government to sympathise with his tirade against nuclear energy. "If there are two issues that have consistently appeared in their manifestos right from the Jan Sangh days, it is the Ram Mandir and impetus to nuclear energy. The emphasis of Modi government is also on that."

"What we fail to understand is that nuclear reactors work in Japan because the systems are transparent and a huge amount of electricity comes out of them. That's not the case in India. Here it is all about commission over substandard products that puts several lives to risk, only for the three per cent electricity that we get from nuclear reactors," he added.

Udayakumar added that a third front government under the leadership of Vaiko and Thirumavalavan would have given the people of Tamil Nadu what they wanted - respite from the Dravidian parties. "But choosing someone like Vijaykanth to head the coalition was a bad decision. How can someone who couldn't be a good opposition leader be an efficient CM?" he asked.