In this era of “Modern Times” marked by ports and roads when many a ruler behaves like “The Great Dictator” paying obeisance to the Holy Colonial Trinities of “Science, Technology, Development,” “Money, Machine, Market,” and “Globalization, Americanization, Monetisation,” here was a leader from the southernmost coast of South Asia with a new clear message: Put People First!
September 18, 2012 was a fretful and eerie day for the people in and around the Koodankulam village near the southernmost tip of the Peninsula. For the Tamil Nadu police had unleashed a reign of terror on the peaceful protestors against two massive Russian-supplied nuclear reactors. They were apprehensive that their safety, security, livelihood and futures were all in peril because of the slapdash, corruption-ridden, substandard nuclear power project that was thrust down their throats by the Indian State.
Tens of thousands of hapless and hopeless Koodankulam protestors who had been protesting peacefully, nonviolently and democratically for more than a year then were all quite helpless. All the big mainstream political parties threw their weight behind the nuclear establishment for fear of looking compromised on their “national security” commitments and losing their patriotic credentials.
If India was indeed “the largest democracy of the world,” there should have been at least a basic acknowledgement of the simple facts that the local citizens are intelligent enough to understand the developmental issues and concerns, have an understanding of their needs and wants, and know what is in their best interest.
But the Statist reality was to the contrary. Father State Knows Best! The doubting sons and daughters were seditious, dangerous and despicable. They had to be booked and prosecuted; their homes and properties must be attacked and vandalized; and their civil rights denied and fighting spirit subdued.
But then all of a sudden, out of nowhere, and completely unexpectedly, a Messiah of the Masses appeared on the horizon. At the border town of Kaliakkavilai, between Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Standing up tall for them, sticking his neck out for them, and speaking aloud for them!
An 88-year-old ripe man! A right man who had always been there for the left out. A man who had put “ordinary people” first all his life in his thoughts, feelings, speeches, actions, dreams and decisions! When the Tamils’ own present and past Chief Ministers were either active tormentors or passive spectators, the former Chief Minister of a neighboring state came to their rescue.
Comrade Ayya V. S. Achuthanandan, who had declared his unequivocal support for the ongoing protest against the Kudankulam nuclear power project, was stopped on his way to Idinthakarai by the Tamil Nadu police. They said: “We explained to him about the curfew in force at Kudankulam and that his visit might spark a law and order problem.”
The tall and powerful VS did not have to go all the way. He did send out a loud and clear message on the need to protect the human rights of the peaceful protestors, the need to protect the pristine environment of the Peninsula from radioactive onslaught, and the need to think about science, technology, development, security, prosperity and all the rest of it as if people mattered!
VS had already written an article expressing his beliefs and convictions. His article (published in Mathrubhumi Daily on 10.09.2012, and in Kalachuvadu (Tamil) October 2012) raised several pertinent questions. Out of the 205 countries in the world only 31 of them utilized nuclear technology. Australia that had 23 percent of the global reserve of Uranium did not have even a single nuclear reactor. Nuclear power constituted a meager 7 percent of the global electricity output. His article clearly established that nuclear energy was not cheap, safe, clean or green.
But the CPI(M) had a different take on the nuclear issue. The Party opposed the setting up of nuclear parks with imported nuclear reactors on the basis of Indo-US nuclear deal as they were “not viable on technical and economic grounds and also from the point of view of safety.” However, the Party “made an exception as the agreement for these [Koodankulam] reactors were signed two decades before the Indo-US nuclear deal, at a time when the US and other western countries had imposed sanctions on India.” The Party was also concerned that two reactors from Russia had already been constructed at considerable cost and they were at the final stage before commissioning.
Comrade Ayya VS, a founding member of the CPI(M) and a true inspiration for people-oriented politics in Kerala and in India, tactically stepped back from his pronounced support for the anti-nuclear protests at Koodankulam but remained steadfast in his opposition to the nightmarish colonial development model. He continued to believe firmly that nuclear plants were dangerous anywhere in the world.
This writer along with the now-deceased fisherfolks leader T. Peter, Maglene, N. Subrahmanian and others had the singular fortune of conversing with him so many times on topics such as science, technology, development, ecology, climate crisis, security and so forth.
His convictions were not clouded by shallow identity markers such as Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Malayalis, Tamils, Communist party, Central Committee etc. There was indeed only one committed central theme in his political being: Put People First!
In the contemporary Capitalistic Holy Trinity of “Liberalization – Privatization – Globalization” driven world, that cunningly uses innocuous language and innocent-sounding phrases such as Climate Change (Climate Destruction), Nature Loss (Nature Loot), and Atmospheric Pollution (Atmospheric Annihilation) for their continuous colonial onslaught, this tall and true leader thought right for the left out. He was Red in heart but Green in vision: Red – Green was his color!
When indiscriminate land-based and seabed mining for critical minerals, oil and natural gas; setting up of huge nuclear power parks and small modular reactors; and other Fascist colonial developmental paraphernalia are overwhelming us all, the struggle can no longer be identified as one of “Peoples vs. States” but “Planet vs. Profiteers.” The VS part in this equation is very important. Put People First! Put yourself among them!! Preach and practice democracy!!!
Don’t go anywhere as we do not believe in hell or heaven. Continue to lead us, Comrade! And thank you for everything so far.
