[Reader-list] OPEN LETTER TO PRIME MINISTER AGAINST THE WITCH HUNT IN KOODAMKULAM

[asit das]

* *

*OPEN LETTER TO PRIME MINISTER AGAINST THE WITCH HUNT IN KOODAMKULAM*



Mr. Prime Minister,



We are shocked to read your interview in Science Magazine on Feb. 24,
2012.  While drawing attention to India as a democracy, you have failed to
respond to the legitimate and widespread democratic concerns of citizens on
issues of genetically modified foods, and India’s aggressive nuclear
expansionist policies. To sideline serious concerns over the safety and
merits of both these programs as merely vested by funds from outside, is
incorrect, and does not befit a person in your office. One might cast
similar aspersions on the many ‘partnerships’ entered by Government of
India with foreign nations, which might not be considered by all to benefit
our nation.



We ask Government of India to respond to safety concerns posed by the
independent expert committee report on Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant
(KNPP). Besides these particular safety issues with the KNPP project, there
are also high health risks associated with radiation exposures for
communities living around any nuclear plant. Two studies carried out in
Germany and more recently in France show a spike in incidence of leukemia
in children around nuclear power plants – a result that should not be taken
lightly.



In any democracy, the voice of opposition or dissent – if heard and
responded to seriously, strengthens the democratic process and yields
solutions that are more representative of people’s needs and concerns. Yet,
you have dismissed all opposition to your individual vision for the nation
as effectively ‘non-thinking’.



India is at a serious crossroad – to subserve a State-Corporate nexus by
siphoning off all national resources with processes such as SEZs,
commodification of water, industrial energy subsidies, encouraging GM of
our food security and promoting FDIs, or, to reassert the true sovereignty
of the citizens of this secular and democratic republic, so that even the
highest appointments of the State must first represent and serve people’s
interest.



We ask that you do not resort to potentially slanderous, repressive tactics
to gag discussions on nuclear or any other ‘development’ issues using any
un-mandated powers of your office, but instead adopt a consultative
approach with people of India, to resolve their issues and concerns.  While
this process may be slow, we must remember that we are not China, as you
pointed out in the interview to Science.



Sincerely,



*WOMAN AGAINST SEXUAL VIOLENCE AND STATE REPRESSION*



Admiral Ramdas           Raigarh, Maharashtra

Lalita Ramdas               Antinuclear Activist, Raigarh, Maharashtra

Meher Ingineer             Ex-Director, Bose Institute, Kolkata



Arati Chokshi                 Secretary PUCL, Karnataka



Ajit Jha             Samajwadi Jan Parishad



Kiran Shaheen              Media Action Group, Delhi



P.K. Sunderam Research Scholar, JNU



Asit Das                       Writer Activist, Delhi



Rajni Kant Mudgal       Socialist Front, Delhi



Ranjeet Thakur Journalist, Uttrakhand



Rita Kumari                  Pravasi Nagarik Manch, Delhi



Major General S.G. Vombtkere (Rtd)   NAPM, Mysore



Kavita Krishnan                                                CPIML
Liberation



Ovais Sultan Khan                                            Student Delhi
School of Social Work

Pervin Jehangir                                     NAPM Mumbai

Sudha Reddy,                                                   Social
Activist, Bangalore.

Anivar Aravind                                     Moving Republic Bangalore

Dr. Anand Teltumbde                                       CPDR, Mumbai

Dr Kaveri Rajaraman                                        PDF, PUCL,
Bangalore, WSS, Karnataka

Wilfred Kher                                                    Student JNU

Anand Krishnaraj                                             Research
Scholar JNU

Prof. Nivedita Menon                                       SIS JNU

Aditya Nigam                                                   CSDS

Preeti Sampat                                                   Writer
Activist, Delhi

Anuradha Talwar                                  Paschim Banga Khet Mazdoor
Samity West Bengal

Usha                                                    Trivandrum

M.Kikon                                              Nagaland

Pushkar Raj,                                         General, PUCL

Uma Chandru,                          PUCL, Bangalore.

Pushpa Achanta                                    PUCL and WSS, Karnataka

Shehnaz Malek                         Armaan Mahila Sangathan

Kamayani Bali Mahabal                        Lawyer Activist Ahmedabad,
Mumbai

Vivek Sundara                                      Human Rights activist,
Mumbai

Prafulla Samantara                                Lok Shakti Abhiyan

Shaheen                                               Bangalore

RAmneek Singh                                    Playwright, Bangalore

Rohini Hensman                                    Writer and Activist,
Mumbai

Praveen Verma             International Institute for Sociology of law,
Onate, Gipuzoka, Spain

Nityanand Jayaram                               Writer and Researcher,
Chennai

Shankar Sharma                                   Power Policy Analyst,
Karnataka

Deba Prasad Roychowdhury                General Secretary Association for
Protection of Democratic Rights (APDR), West Bengal

Sujit Patwardhan                                  PUNE

PT George                                           Social Activist, Delhi

Ashis Kothari                                       Kalpavriksh, Delhi

Thomas Kocherry                                 World Forum for Fisher
People

Shah Alam                                            Independent Film
Maker, Delhi