'Centre, TN suppressing anti-nuke protests in Koodankulam'

The leader of anti-nuclear protests in Koodankulam today charged the Centre and the Tamil Nadu government with suppressing the struggle "only to support foreign countries" which want to sell nuclear reactors.

At a day-long All-India Left Coordination Convention activist S P Udaykumar demanded through video message the closure of the project.

"The central and state governments are ignoring our pleas ... to support the American, Russian and French nuclear projects in the country. We strongly demand the closure of Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant project and the government should scrap all nuclear power projects," he said.

"We do need development but not at the cost of putting the lives of millions of people at stake and destroying our natural resources," he said.

He accused the CPI and CPI(M) of supporting the Koodankulam project on one hand and opposing Jaitapur Nuclear Power Plant on the other.

At the convention, several leaders of various Left parties accused the UPA government of being "pro-corporate". "The state is brazenly becoming pro-corporate and authoritarian," CPI National Secretary D Raja said.

Encouraging Left and democratic forces to work together keeping differences aside, Raja said, "Capitalist ideologies do not know how to overcome global crises ideologically and politically. Capitalism cannot be permanent, it has to be negated. It will be negated. The future lies in socialism."

The convention also opposed FDI in retail, price rise, subsidy cuts and wanted the UPA government to quit. The AILC gave a call for Punjab Bandh on October 5, Parivartan Rally in Patna on November 9 and a two-day strike by central trade unions in February next year.