Chennai Corner

Political Pariahs

CM Jayalalitha was clear at the AIADMK’s general council meeting recently that those who had betrayed the party would continue to remain pariahs. This was a message to all those who were trotting out her earlier forgiveness of Sasikala Natarajan (whom she again turfed out of her life on December 19 last year along with assorted relatives of her former friend from various party posts) in 1996 as an indication that all will be well soon. In fact, the purge of the “Mannargudi Mafia”( a reference to her erstwhile friend and her coterie) continues at political and bureaucratic levels— particularly of IPS officers seen as being close to Sasikala or her husband M. Natarajan— continues.

There’s a rumour that the story in Tamil weekly Nakheeran last week calling Jayalalitha a beef eater has been planted by the Mannargudi Mafia to divert the CM’s attention from the weeding out she is doing. Jayalalitha’s government has slapped 24 cases against the magazine whose offices saw AIADMK men protesting vehemently after the publication of the story. Wielding brooms and slippers, partymen laid seize to the magazine’s office at Royapettah. All of this makes it clear that neither Jayalalitha nor her government ( or party) is going to be wimpish when the CM is insulted.

In contrast, PM Manmohan Singh, who was in Chennai recently, found himself weak-kneed when he was forced to meet a 2G accused and was also voluble in his support of another man who has been targeted by the opposition for an alleged role in the Spectrum scam. Manmohan Singh was forced to keep quiet when DMK chief Karunanindhi brought along daughter Kanimozhi, who spent 194 days in Tihar jail from May 20 for her alleged role in the 2G scam. At Chennai airport, the PM was also received by another tainted DMK man, former minister Dayanidhi Maran, whose house and offices were raided recently by the CBI. Then the PM went to Karaikudi in Sivaganga (Home Minister P Chidamabram’s constituency) and delivered this eulogy: “ Since 2004, I have derived immense support from his enlightened leadership as finance minister and then home minister. Whatever task was given to him, he performed with superb aplomb.”

Same Old, Same Old

The New Year has come but old problems remain. Chiefly, the Mullaiperiyar agitation and the one at Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant which is now four months old. After her meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh when he came down here, CM Jayalalitha has jumped off the KKNPP bandwagon but is very much on the Mullaiperiyar one.

This week she announced that her government will build a Rs1 crore memorial to Colonel John Pennycuick, the British engineer whose brainchild it was to dam the Periyar river (falling in Madras Presidency) in 1895 so that water poured into southern districts of TN (irrigating 2.23 lakh acres in districts including Theni, Dindigul, Madurai bringing prosperity to farmers) instead of wastefully flowing into the sea. TN has much to be grateful for, not least because Col Pennycuick sold his own property in England to come up with the funds to complete the dam, built of materials such as lime kurki and big stones, that TN says is strong and Kerala argues is vulnerable and has to go. The memorial including park and life size statue will be built at the TNEB premises in Theni district.

Penny for Their Thoughts

Gratitude from the people who swapped their life as anti-social elements for a productive life as farmers on the now fertile land has not been as belated as the government’s and certainly has not been on display to score brownie points. Says Andi of Pallarupatti, one of the many villagers where Pennycuick is a god, “We consider him as an ancestor and show our reverence by worshipping him.” When Pongal comes around this week-end, special poojas in his name will be performed, rekla race conducted and kabaddi tournaments held in his name. There’s even an idol of Pennycuick in a temple at Kuchanur.

Many villages that did not exist before waters flowed there thanks to the 116-year-old dam and it’s no wonder that a portrait of Pennycuick hangs in every house. After the TN-Kerala fracas over the dam, more portraits of the dam creator have sprung up on name boards and among the pantheon of gods in pooja rooms in homes. CM Jayalalitha was right when she said his name is etched in the hearts of the locals. Only her government is set to leverage it politically by building a memorial to the man who built a dam “that is strong even today”.

But former CM Karunanidhi was characteristically sarcastic. Apart from saying that during his tenure in 2000 his government had erected a statue for the British engineer in Madurai, his crack at Jayalalitha was, “In the midst of Thane cyclone, Mullaiperiyar dam and Koodankulam issues, as there was nothing to announce , a decision on the memorial for Pennycuick was announced by the Chief Minister”.

Is Kerala Listening?

Controversy Booked

Incidentally, the controversy between the states had a fall-out at 35th Chennai Book Fair on January 10 when activists of the May 17 Movement (so named after the last day of the LTTE in the Mullivaaikal combat in 2009 which is the day the war in Sri Lanka officially ended) wanted the Malayala Manorama stall shut down. The Booksellers' and Publishers' Association of South India (BAPASI) at first, bowing to the protests before the stall, said the stall would be removed. But later decided to ask the Malayalam newspaper to display its sister publication, The Week at the fair. Booksellers and Publishers Association of South India (BAPASI) president R.S. Shanmugam said: “We told the protesters that they have the right to protest. But we have to protect our member.”

Another manifestation of the protest at the book fair was against writer Arundhati Roy, saying she should not attend the book release function of seven covers including the Tamil translation of the Booker-winning author’s Broken Republic. The protest was against Cage in Tamil— written by former UN spokesperson Gordon Weiss on the last days of the war— as being “anti-Dalit, anti-Islam and anti-Eelam.” Reacting to the protest, Roy said, “I cannot believe that people want to shut out the possibility of debate, of introspection about what went wrong. It is an insult to the memory of those killed as well as to those Tamils who survived and have to continue to live in Sri Lanka.” She went onto say that “the annihilation of criticism, introspection, debate, difference of opinion, is the annihilation of politics itself. It is a way of thinking and acting that could have been one of the reasons for the LTTE’s defeat.”

Kudankulam Continues to Simmer

Meanwhile, the other major agitation in TN at the KKNPP goes on at a low key, now that the CM has subtly withdrawn her support. But KKNPP is far from commissioning and many of its officers are being transferred to other power plants in Rajasthan, Gujarat, etc. But S.P. Udayakumar, convenor of the People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE), is not giving up and has dared the centre to substantiate its allegations of vested interest and shady funding for the protests in Idinthakarai, the village where the fast first began on September 12. “The Congress, unable to tackle the protests, is resorting to smear campaigns to discredit what is truly a people’s movement. They are alleging a lot of things, like religious involvement, foreign funding and political motives among others, to trivialise the stir,” he said.

He defends the charge about the suspicions surrounding the funding. “We are totally funded by contributions from local community. We receive donations from fishermen and beedi rollers, and are very stingy in our expenditure.” But union minister of state in the PMO, V.Narayanasamy (who had said earlier that six of the NGOs in the area who get foreign funding were being audited) , has said, “The plant will go on stream as planned soon with the cooperation of the state government.” According to him, 156 cases had been registered against the agitators, but no one had yet been arrested or detained.

Udaykumar has even written letters to the three women CMs in India—Jayalalitha, Mayawati and Mamata Banerjee “to rescue our country from the clutches of the international nuclear mafia.” “As women leaders with motherly concern for the people who enjoy people’s trust and a huge people’s mandate, you are the hope of our country’s youth and children,” he added.

Protests in the coming days include a “wailing protest” on January 30, the death anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.

The Other Side

Udaykumar has also attacked the Central Expert Committee on Koodankulam saying, “The answers that they are giving are insufficient.” But the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) has hit back. A TV ad being carried on prime time shows respected cancer specialist Dr V. Shantha (Chairperson of the Adyar Cancer Institute) saying, “After extensive studies in and around the nuclear plants, we found there is no relation between cancer and radiation.”

R.S. Sundar, station director, KKNPP, said the one-minute advertisement was to create awareness and show up the “false campaign” by anti-nuclear activists. He also said, “We have been able to convince almost all sections of society about the safety of the plant, including the people of Tirunelveli. Only those protesting at Idinthakkarai are not convinced by our explanation.”

The NPCIL commissioned a study on the health of employees working in various plants found that 98.5 people out of 1 lakh in the general population had cancer as compared to 54.05 persons in every 1 lakh nuclear plant employees. The study also found that mortality due to cancer among public is 68 per 1 lakh population as compared to 29.05 per 1 lakh nuclear plant employees.

Youngsters across the state particularly in colleges are also being targeted by the pro-plant lobby (KKNPP, Central Experts, even industry bodies). “Youngsters need to be aware of the processes and ramifications of nuclear energy and whether it is really as dangerous ,” said P K N Panicker, president of Chemical Industries Association, which had organised debate at Anna University last week.

The association has been actively campaigning for an early commissioning of the project and has even written to the CM.