A peace movement is born

After two years of local campaigns against the nuclearisation of India, citizens' groups came together recently in New Delhi to move on to the next stage. A report by C. RAMMANOHAR REDDY.

AN event of hopefully great significance for India and all of South Asia took place in New Delhi earlier this month. After three days of deliberations, grassroots workers, former members of the armed forces, trade unionists, students, scientists, doctors and artistes from around the country decided to constitute the Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace, the first country-wide network against weapons of mass destruction. Sadly, the happening was barely noticed by the media, which is very attentive when it comes to reporting bellicose statements and offering considerable space to analysis that is only one step away from a call to arms.

A peace movement is not totally new to India. Over the years, a number of small groups in India and Pakistan have tried to build bridges over the flames fanned by the governments of the two countries. On a parallel track, a handful of organisations like the Movement in India for Nuclear Disarmament and the Physicians for Peace, have worked to highlight the dangers of South Asia going nuclear. The Pokhran tests of May 1998 changed all that. While political parties across the mainstream spectrum initially either vied with each other to express their support for a nuclear India or chose to congratulate scientists who had demonstrated their prowess at the 50-year-old technology of nuclear tests, it was left to citizens' groups to oppose the dangerous path that the Government had taken. New groups like the Indian Scientists against Nuclear Weapons sprouted to work alongside grassroots organisations in the campaign against nuclearisation. Small these groups were, but they were numerous and widespread enough to deny the establishment's claims of "a national consensus" in support of nuclear weapons.

While the campaign against the horrors of nuclearisation has continued, the actions have been local and independent of each other. To build up co-ordinated action and give the campaign a new momentum, a few groups took the first initiative to hold a "National Convention for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace" in New Delhi between November 11 and 13. More than 100 citizens' groups around the country interacted over six months in preparation for the meeting. The results were there to see. Over 600 delegates, double the expected number, participated in the convention which was financed solely by citizens' groups and individuals and was an entirely voluntary exercise. This was not a "Delhi" show, as events in the capital frequently turn out to be. More than 450 of the 600-odd delegates were from outside New Delhi. There were residents of rural Rajasthan, Kashmir and Bihar rubbing shoulders with trade unionists from Mumbai. Grassroots workers from Bengal and Tamil Nadu joined hands with retired personnel from the armed forces. Artistes, students and teachers from New Delhi were together with scientists from Bangalore. The organisation by volunteers was remarkable. There were two days of intense discussions in more than 20 working groups that dealt with nuclear doctrines, militarisation, nuclear power, networking, advocacy and campaign strategies. While discussions went on late into the evening, the sessions were interspersed with folk music, street theatre, slide shows and films. (The documentary "Buddha Weeps at Jaduguda" which gave a frightening picture of what is going on in Jharkhand where the uranium for India's nuclear power and weapons programme is mined will convince even the most sceptical citizen about how casual India's atomic energy/weapons establishment can be about safety and how callous it can be towards those living around nuclear facilities.)

In what gave the convention a truly global character, the Indian delegates were joined by 50 representatives from Pakistan and peace activists from the small countries (Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka) in the nuclear shadow of South Asia. Also present to share their experiences were representatives of well-known peace and disarmament movements in West Europe, North America, Japan, Australia and New Zealand like the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, Abolition 2000 and the Japan Congress against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs.

On the third day of the convention, the delegates decided to form the "National Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace (NCNDP)". As the name suggests, the NCNDP is not going to be a centralised organisation but a co-ordinating coalition for groups opposed to nuclear weapons. The brief interim charter of the NCNDP demands first of all that India stop assembly of nuclear weapons, halt development of delivery systems (i.e. missiles) that can deliver these weapons and end production of weapons- grade fissile material (i.e. plutonium). It also demands complete transparency in this area and calls for proper compensation to all people harmed by government activities in the nuclear fuel cycle - from uranium mining to reactor operation to waste disposal. The charter calls for a similar roll-back in Pakistan and demands that the five nuclear weapons states immediately de- alert their weapon systems, commit themselves to a No First Use strategy and stop all research into advanced weapons. (A 50- member national co-ordinating committee was also constituted to prepare a more detailed charter for the first country-wide peace coalition.)

The NCNDP also drew up a detailed action plan for the next year. Some of the components are:

* To establish a "clearing house" of information to generate public awareness about nuclear weapons and a lack of transparency in the nuclear power sector.

* To build up a dialogue with all political parties, mass organisations, religious bodies and professional associations.

* To support organisations fighting the cause of nuclear radiation.

* To help set up a national federation of radiation victims.

* To work with the Pakistan Peace Coalition (PPC) to identify 10 schools and 10 colleges in India and Pakistan which will be "sister" institutions that will discuss disarmament and peace.

* To liase with the PPC and prepare for a joint Indo-Pakistan civil society initiative that would highlight the dangers of nuclearisation of South Asia.

It was not as if there was unanimity at the convention on all issues. Many delegates had strong and differing views on India's nuclear power programme and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). The discussions on power, in particular, were quite heated. While grassroots organisations working in Bihar, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu - areas where the environment and health fall-outs of government activities in different stages of the nuclear fuel cycle have led to considerable local protests - could not see how the nuclear power programme could be separated from weapons production, there were some who were against a clubbing of the two. If yet these differences did not come in the way of the formation of the NCNDP and formulation of a plan of action, then credit must go to the six months of preparatory work during which many of these differences were aired and compromises worked out.

In any case, a rainbow of views in anti-nuclear weapons movements are not uncommon around the world. Coalitions everywhere contain differences on specific issues while they remain focussed on the larger goals. Mr. Dave Knight, head of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in the United Kingdom, who was a delegate to the convention, observed that "Where it took us years to agree on a broad agenda, it is a remarkable achievement of the Indian activists to have come to the same position so quickly".

Forming a platform and drawing up a plan of action is one thing. Building up a mass campaign and lobbying with the political establishment is the more difficult and longer term task. It will be a long haul. But a beginning was made in New Delhi on the road to a safer, more secure and nuclear-free South Asia, which is quite the opposite of what the nuclear scientists, the strategic thinkers and political elites have created for us.

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