Koodankulam: The cost of resistance

“Many people have asked me why I protest in my condition (polio affected) but I tell them exactly why I protest. I have suffered from my physical handicap so much and I don’t want any child to suffer that. Nuclear accidents and continuous exposure to radioactivity deforms foetuses and increases the possibilities of handicapped children…I went to the beach protest on the 9th with my children with the same determination…As the police started lobbing tear gas shells and lathi charging simultaneously, I started running with my children. Because of my handicap, I was a bit slow. My daughter was injured and was near the sea. As I was trying to go close to her and pick her up, an RAF man caught hold of me and told me, ‘Why do you women want to run behind Udayakumar? Sleep with me.’ I cried and begged him to leave me… My child was bleeding and in the water,” evidence given by a 29-year-old disabled woman on September 20/21, 2012.

This is among several horrific testimonies that form part of a fact-finding report accessed by Pratirodh Bureau. The soon-to-be-released report has been prepared by a team comprising former judge of the Bombay High Court B. G. Kolse Patil, senior journalist from Mumbai Kalpana Sharma and Tamil writer R. N. Joe D’Cruz after their visit to the villages of Idinthakarai, Tsunami Colony of Idinthakarai, Vairavikinaru and Kudankulam on September 20/21.

The team went to probe reports of police atrocities on September 10 and 11 against peaceful protestors against the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Project (KNPP) and found many instances of women having been molested, children beaten up and adults charged under draconian provisions, sedition laws apparently as a form of punishment for their protest.

Besides severely beating up protestors who were so fearful of venturing out from their hiding places that they did not even access any medical help, a church were desecrated, the police randomly arrested people, including a 75-year-old man who is practically visually challenged and a 16-year-old teenager.

The findings raise a matter of great gravity given that they endorse widespread reports about violence against women, children and the elderly by the police. They also involve acts of looting and damage to public and private property and open intimidation. Most importantly, they represent acts of illegality that cannot be challenged by the victims as the perpetrators are the police themselves.

While the political parties have left the people to the mercy of a brutal police force guided, obviously, by a ruthless administration, are concerned citizens going to just sit and watch. Isn’t it time that the peaceful agitators of Koodankulam get support from elsewhere?