THE POWER OF UNKEPT PROMISES -- By Anuj Wankhede
Not many people
would have heard of a person R.K Gupta from Mumbai. Earlier this year we spoke
with him, and he had some telling insights about the functioning of the Indian
Nuclear power industry and what really happens in the background.
This
is his story.
BUT FIRST THE BACKGROUND:
India should listen
awaken and try to understand exactly how this country functions
despite over 60 years of this so called “Independence” from British Raj.
And as India gears up to display and show-off its military
might on 15th August, one needs to also ponder and reflect on the
fate of the sailors aboard the submarine which India has lost
just a day before its Independence Day.
India has today has become a nation which can be easily
bought.
Everything in India is today on a fire sale. From
politicians, to journalists, media, bureaucracy, police, and courts……all are “buyable”,
naturally, only if the price is right. That price is being set by
foreign companies and it’s a huge price!!!
These companies can afford to pay the price because India is such a
huge market for any product and the profits are practically limitless
when compared to the investments which these MNC’s and trans-national companies
have to make before setting up shop in India.
This shift started
somewhere in the 1990’s when India – under current PM Manmohan Singh’s wisdom -
decided to “liberalize” its economy and opened the flood gates for foreign
investments into India. The decision to do so was motivated by the IMF and
World Bank (which are totally controlled by the US and European countries.) And
politicians from across the spectrum have embraced this as a solution to all
problems in India – from poverty to health to transport and to practically
everything……All has been sold out to foreign companies..
Why is India celebrating an Independence Day?
It is
more of a joke now because this is now a country where Gandhi led a struggle
against the British and independence was “earned” at a huge cost of lives and a
long struggle. And yet, today, the country wallows in its supposed dependence
from Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) or on Foreign Institutional Investors (FII)
money to prop itself up!
All this has hurt this country badly - its social fabric has broken
down; the poor have become poorer and on the whole it has caused enormous
losses which are not measurable in monetary terms at all.
One such person who has been a victim of this Independent
India is one Mr. R.K. Gupta.
NOW:
India has in a way been sold away to the nuclear industry - although nuclear power contributes barely 2-3% of the Indian power generation.
But the gains for this industry, the bureaucracy as well as the "nuclear scientists" is
so huge that a person like R.K. Gupta has been left crippled and in a bad shape
at an age when the establishment which employed him should have been caring for
him.
Homi Bhabha convinced Nehru to invest in Atomic Energy because "it would in future be too cheap even to meter it"....a failed promise as usual.... |
R.K. developed psoriasis,and also got a hip injury while working at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) in Mumbai. He was diligent at work and hence never complained about the working conditions at the Plutonium extraction facility where he served for 35 long years -Silently. He joined BARC and he retired from it believing in the Homi Bhabha dream of making India into a nuclear super-power.
Yet, today he has many serious health problems; he has
written to the government about them, and what is worse is that nobody has even
acknowledged his issues. As he says, when he was seriously ill, the officials
and hospital authorities manipulated his seriousness of health and he had no
recourse to claim any compensations or to go to court for any kind of
assistance.
R.K. Gupta worked in the plutonium extraction division with BARC
which makes the raw material for the Indian Atomic (nuclear) weapons that are
supposed to be a “national pride”. And yet this man has been left
practically on the streets by the very organization he worked with for
decades!!!
He has been denied benefits accruing to him out of
retirement and service for the many decades he served in that hazardous job at
the Nuclear Fuel Extraction facility at BARC and now he has been tossed out
like a vegetable. His thoughts are for the poor farmers, fishermen and ordinary
people who will continue to face the brunt of the high handedness of the
Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) in Delhi and these officials will continue to
sit in their plush air-conditioned offices and claim that nuclear energy is ‘safe’.
And this is what India has got for its independence -:
Dependence on Russia for the Kudankulam nuclear project, Dependence
on France for the Jaitapur project, Dependence on USA and Japan for the Mithivirdi
and Kovadda projects…..
Sure, and this is the REAL INDEPENDENCE INDIA has
obtained from the British!!!
Let’s all celebrate the sellout of a nation on this Independence
Day with R.K.Gupta and salute our corrupt establishment which has become a
source of extraction of resources and energies of people and no care for them
once extracted.
A nation that has tumbled down in the world corruption index
and fares poorly to be seen as one of the most corrupt nations. (Transparency International)
A nation that does not see shame about the fact that it has
seen the most number of scams and scandals in the world. (Read more here
about them.)
Happy Independence Day, India.
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