Anti-Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project Struggle Committee convener S.P. Udayakumar on Monday challenged Union Minister V. Narayanasamy to prove the allegation that he (Udayakumar) was receiving foreign assistance to carry out the protests, by producing credible evidence against him in a court of law, “where he will be sued shortly”.
Dr. Udayakumar told reporters that he attended two meetings – one in New Delhi between March 17 and 19, 2005 and the other one in Stockholm on March 15, 2006 – organised by the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA) as he was one of the resource persons in the organisation's panel on reconciliation.
“I've no other contact with IDEA and do not have any financial transaction with this organisation as being indirectly alleged by Mr. Narayanasamy. Since the reply by Mr. Narayanasamy to my legal notice is not satisfactory, I've decided to sue him as his remarks have tarnished my impeccable image. He should produce in the court the evidence he has to prove his charges against me.”
Dr. Udayakumar said that he would be sending legal notice to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh too within a day or two for his “Scandinavian connection” remarks against the anti-KKNPP struggle.
He said former Union Minister and former Tamil Nadu Congress Committee president E.V.K.S. Elangovan would also receive legal notice for his recent assertion that Dr. Udayakumar had been jailed in the United States for three months for “drug trafficking”.
“Instead of recognising a struggle being waged with democratic principles against the disastrous nuclear power generation programme, those who are in power are attempting their level best to tarnish the image of the protest by saying that the poor fishermen, farmers and the beedi rollers are playing into the hands of foreign agencies. These cunning attempts can never dent the anti-KKNPP struggle.”
Dr. Udayakumar also rejected Mr. Narayanasamy's allegation that the KKNPP was incurring a loss of Rs.750 crore every month owing to the protests. The commissioning was originally scheduled for 2007. It suffered a seven-year delay as it was not completed till mid-2011. “Who should be held responsible for this delay?”
Dr. Udayakumar said that Maya Kobayashi, who had a miraculous escape in the Fukushima disaster, would share her experience at a function to be organised in Radhapuram on March 11, the first anniversary of the Fukushima incident. .
He hoped that Chief Minister Jayalalithaa was still against the nuclear power programmes as she had announced that the State government would spend Rs.8,000 crore on the Udangudi Thermal Power Project as part of her efforts to make Tamil Nadu a power-surplus State, and not demanded the early commissioning of the KKNPP.
