Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has lashed out at the activist groups trying to stall the operationalising of the Koodankulam nuclear power plant.
In an interview with a leading journal, the Prime Minister took the unprecedented step of stating that the NGOs were receiving their funding from the US and from Scandinavian countries without being aware of the developmental imperatives being faced by India.
Taking a cue from the Prime Minister’s statement, minister of state in the Prime Minister’s Office V. Narayanasamy came out hard against three NGOs based in Tirunelveli and Thuthukudi, which had been spending “huge sums of money on this anti-nuclear agitation”.
Speaking to this newspaper, Mr Narayanasamy said, “When we began making enquiries into the sources of funding, the NGOs responded by saying they collected it from the local fishermen.”
“But the fisher folk had not gone fishing for months, so where are they in a position to make donations. When we probed the matter further, we found money was being pumped in from the US and Scandinavian nations,” the minister of state said.
Licenses of three NGOs were cancelled after a home ministry inquiry found them violating FCRA since funds meant for social causes like helping the physically handicapped and leprosy eradication were being diverted to fuel the anti-nuclear plant protest. The minister added that the Central government continued to enjoy the support of the state government since Tamil Nadu was facing acute power shortage.
When asked to comment on the observation of Dr Bharat Karnad, professor in national security at the Centre for Policy Research, that the agitation was being “sponsored by the US nuclear establishment who are upset that the GE Westinghouse nuclear deal with the Nuclear Power Corporation of India has not been clinched”, he said, “The Americans had put out the effort to bring India out of nuclear isolation and so want to stop the Russians at the pre-commissioning stage”.
Refusing to comment on this matter, Mr Narayanasamy said, “I cannot say (anything) because I have no evidence on it. I would like to emphasise that all the safety measures at Koodankulam are in place as has been vouched for by former Indian President Abdul Kalam.”