THE GREAT INDIAN NUCLEAR LIABILITY SCANDAL

MithivirdiIt’s more than what meets the eye

Analysing behind the scene REAL reasons for the controversy in India

- By Anuj Wankhede

VINAASH KALE, VIPREET BUDDHI - This ancient saying literally means that during the time of our destruction, we go against our intelligence and perform self-destructive actions.

What else can explain the actions of the current Congress government led by the ’shadow’ Prime Minister Manmohan Singh? A ‘Shadow’ PM because by now it has been proven beyond any reasonable doubt and based on all available empirical evidence that he is a puppet propped up by the Gandhi family and reacts to their beck and call.

Does the current PM have any understanding of science or technology – leave alone the complicated workings of the nuclear energy industry. After all, he is a trained Economist - a career bureaucrat - and has made it up through the ranks to have become the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India at the pinnacle of his illustrious career. It may not be incorrect to infer that Dr. Singh understands the color of money best. Beyond that, he has shown himself either incapable, inept or mostly unwilling/unable to grasp issues beyond this limited grasp.  

But what is the real truth? 

Is the Congress party, Manmohan Singh, all the IAS officers, the Gandhi family, the US government establishment and the collective corporates all over the globe so crazy to be pushing for the nuclear agenda despite huge opposition to the dilution of the CLND Act in India? What is the agenda?

Just a couple of days back (Sept 21st 2013), Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh laid the foundation stone for building the World’s Largest Solar Power Project near Jaipur in Rajasthan, Western India. The first phase will generate 1000MW electricity and hold your breath, it will be commissioned in THREE years’ time. 

Compare this with the construction time for building a 1000MW Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) which takes TEN years on an average globally. The lesser said about the delays and huge cost-over runs in India the better. Koodankulam was conceived in 1988 and even after 25 odd years, it is still to deliver a single MW of electricity to the grid. This, despite the thousands of crores pumped into it, court cases, lies and half-truths, military actions, curfews and all methods of repressing the local people by the State and Central governments. 

So, it is well established from the above fact that the Indian government and MMS are well aware of the benefits of renewable energy and the scope for quickly ramping up India’s electricity generation compared to nuclear energy. 

Then why this urgency by the Congress party to amend existing Nuclear Liability Laws to suit the Americans?

THE BACKGROUND

MMS in happier times

When Manmohan Singh was crowned as the Prime Minister of India in the mid 1990’s, he was at the peak of his career having just finished a distinguished career as an economist which led to the Governorship of the Reserve Bank of India – the highest position possible in India. Besides this, he was being widely being acclaimed as the hero of the India by the industry and capitalists (just as they are rooting for Narendra Modi now). Whatever he did was correct and for the long-term good of the nation. “Singh is King” was the cry then.

Among all this, MMS had a pet project – Nuclear energy (and probably weapons) - he is still an extremely pro nukes person. India had been an international pariah since the 1998 Pokhran underground nuclear tests and desperately needed fuel for its existing reactors plus technology and spares to complete its existing plans. This despite the strident cries from NPCIL, DAE and BARC that India has its own indigenous technology and is not dependent on foreign suppliers. This was patently untrue, and this drew Manmohan Singh to signing the Indo-US Civil Nuclear Agreement deal in 2008.

The deal allowed US firms to supply technology (reactors), spares and fuel to India and would pave the way for India to be removed from the nuclear blacklisted nations category. The value of the nuclear deal was put at US$ 150 billion in business for the American corporation in addition to huge number of jobs created in US.

The deal was vehemently opposed by the Indian opposition parties in the parliament and outside. Eventually when there was a parliamentary vote of confidence prior to this, it was revealed that huge sums of money had been given to opposing Members of the Parliament to vote in favor of the deal. In this manner, the Indo-US accord was somehow sealed and rammed down the throats of unwilling Indians who saw it as an abject sellout to the US.

On India’s part, it had successfully bargained to continue with its dual-use technology program (nuclear energy + nuclear weapons) India would only selectively allow independent IAEA inspections at sites of its choice (keeping the military use sites out of bounds for such international supervisions), India would not ratify the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and would become a member country within the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) thus gaining access to uranium fuel among other benefits.

Obviously, all this did not come cheap. The Americans drove a hard bargain by getting India to commit part of its huge nuclear potential to US corporations – notably GE and Westinghouse. Besides making all the above concessions, reportedly the Americans had a hand (or were at least aware of) the huge “cash for vote” scandal which rocked the Parliament during the vote according to the Wikileaks tapes expose in 2011.

Manmohan Singh has always looked at the Indo US nuclear deal as the crowning glory of his career and has said so many times - publicly and during interviews.

However, in his second stint as the Prime Minister of India, things went downhill rapidly. The crony capitalists, industrialists, foreign companies, politicians and bureaucrats had formed a well-oiled system of brazen bribery for their own pernicious gains running into thousands of crores of rupees. Everything in the country was up for grabs provided the bribe was right. 

Scams and scandals involving everything from underground mines to over-ground forests to airwaves erupted one after another and the needle of suspicion was increasing pointing toward the Prime Minister. Whether he himself accepted part of the bribe is unknown, but the fact that all this happened under his nose, on his guard and by people who were close to him sullied his image badly. He seemed incapable of decision making and increasingly it became an accepted fact that the Congress High Command members led by the Gandhi family were calling the shots from behind the scenes. 

Words such as “puppy”, “poodle” and “puppet” became metaphors to describe Manmohan Singh who was once supremely confident and strong.

His position and influence rapidly went downhill in the government as well as in governance.

MMS - Recent file pic

VINAASH KALE, VIPREET BUDDHI i.e. during the time of our destruction, we go against our intelligence.

Scams after scams were uncovered and skeletons tumbled out of cupboards, the courts repeatedly rapped the government for its inaction and shielding the guilty. Yet, Manmohan doggedly supported his close colleagues who were charged with serious economic offences at times even openly defending the outright guilty or somehow managing to get confidential files and evidence mysteriously disappear.

BUT WHY THIS URGENCY NOW???

Let us analyze the sudden urgency demonstrated by both sides in the backdrop of the above situation in which Manmohan Singh - and by extension the Congress party and India are trapped into now. 

Manmohan Singh is literally caught between a rock and a hard place with little room to maneuver. He made a commitment in 2008 when the 123 agreement was signed by offering the 150 billion dollar carrot to the US. Swayed by this huge deal, the US administration and politicians - in a rare show of unity - passed the Hyde Act with a huge majority in the US Senate. 

After all, the deal was tilted in the favor of the US. India was already a nuclear weapons state and by not admitting to this fact meant that US corporations would lose billions in profits besides the “loss” of jobs for local Americans. Ethics are damned in such deals as long a money talks and so the US amended its laws by making an exception for India.

So far, so good. However, things turned sour when India passed the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damages (CLND) Act in 2010 owing to pressure from opposition, environmental groups and public at large.

To the horror of the Americans, they found that they had been literally taken for a ride. The CLND Act proposed making the foreign suppliers liable for any accident resulting from faults and failures of equipment by the suppliers. As this damage can be unlimited, nuclear suppliers – despite making huge profits – cannot get access to third party insurance. The Indian Act makes them open to bankruptcy if things fail as the consequential damages would be too large to be covered. 

The Russians took cover under an Inter Government Treaty (IGT) signed for the Koodankulam project in 1988 by claiming that the IGT was signed prior to CLND and hence was not applicable for them. The French are throwing intermittent tantrums about the “stringency” of CLND and also keeping hopes alive by remarking that “they will respect Indian Laws”.

But for the Americans, this was a huge loss for its top nuclear companies – a virtual back stab. Incidentally, GE and Westinghouse are two of the largest contributors to both - the Democrats as well as the Republicans - for their campaign funds. These funds run into hundreds of millions and go into lobbying (read “buying”) support of these Congressmen and Senate members to vote in favor for these companies. Without access to this corporate funding, it will be impossible for US politicians to win elections in a country where even state level elections cost a bomb to win. In fact it is said that Big Tobacco, Big Oil, Big Pharma and Big Defense (including nuclear) can make or break the Presidential elections in the US because these corporations have the financial muscle to change policy at the highest level.

Under pressure from the US government (which in turn was under pressure by the private US nuclear lobby), the Congress government in India tried to push in amendments to the 2010 CLND Act by formulating new Rules in 2011 which virtually made the original Act toothless and gave a backdoor entry to foreign suppliers by capping the limits and tenure of any liability.

Civil society, lawyers and environmental groups were justifiably and immediately up in arms against this sleight of hand and soon the principal opposition parties also seized on this opportunity to stall the passage of the Bill in parliament. In the end, the Bill was referred to the lower house of an all-party parliamentary Standing Committee for scrutiny which after deliberations rejected the Bill unanimously. 

Chastened by the people, environmentalists, civil rights groups and opposition parties, the going was getting tougher for the ruling Congress party. The situation on the ground was getting worse each week with scams and scandals running in hundreds of thousands of crores being routinely exposed in media or by whistle blowers. The media scanner, Supreme Court strictures, Activism by civil society members who were making full use of the Right to Information (RTI) led to a virtual paralysis in the policy making of the UPA-2 regime. Decisions were kept on indefinite hold for fear of being pulled up for impropriety years after retirement, the fear of the Supreme court hauling them to Tihar jail meant that new project approvals or expansion plans went into indefinite cold storage. The Indian economy which had been chugging along at close to double digit growth started slowing down to less than 5% accompanied by hyperinflation which has been officially ruling at about 10% over the past year but is unofficially in the range of 25-30% making the incumbent government unpopular among the middle class masses.

Crony capitalism meanwhile had meant that over the “golden” initial years of the UPA, a select set of people (along with their close aides and partners) had learnt the ropes of bagging lucrative contracts using political contacts and bribes. To make good these “expenses”, these industrialists were allowed to loot and plunder the natural resources (water, forests, agriculture, rivers etc.) as well as exploit the tribals and the poor while the government and administration turned a blind eye to all the illegalities.

Resentment towards the Congress has reached such a level that the body languages of the party leaders (and various polls) show that the Congress will lose the elections slated for early 2014. 

For the Americans, this means that they would have to deal with the next party which wins the elections. While theoretically, the principal opposition party (the right wing BJP) or a Left led Third Front can come to power; in all probability, the BJP has a very strong chance of winning at the hustings.

Kerry delivers the ultimatum

The US and the foreign companies would like to extract their pound of flesh from the Congress for the 2008 commitments made by India before the elections are announced somewhere by late 2013. In fact John Kerry on his India visit in June 2013 practically gave a ultimatum to the Indian government to sort out the Liability issue by September. The timing of this ultimatum cannot be missed given the fact that once the Elections are announced, the Indian Election Commission's Code of Conduct sets in after which the government cannot make any major or even minor policy changes. 

While there is no question of ethics among politicians (more so among the Indian lot), the US will find it far easier to turn the screws on Manmohan Singhs government which is tottering at this point of time rather than a rejuvenated BJP. 

The US administration does not have any love lost for the BJP. It has consistently denied a US visa to Narendra Modi (who is the official BJP candidate for Prime Minister ship if the party wins in 2014) due to his alleged complicity in the 2002 Gujarat communal violence. Given his hard line aggressive behavior Modi would surely use any tactics to shame the US in the same manner in which he felt insulted by the visa denials and seek revenge by not signing any deals with them– at least for a while.

Westinghouse-Toshiba building Mithivirdee N-plant

The BJP publicly portrays an anti-liability dilution stand, but privately they are very much pro nuke - especially on the weapons and energy agenda. There are reports that the BJP is working closely with NPCIL to acquire farmers land for the Westinghouse-Toshiba nuclear park at Mithi Virdi in Gujarat. Drumming up anti Pakistan support has already begun and the jingoistic language will only continue in the run up to elections. For the BJP, the “Bomb” is a symbol of Indian Nationalism and that was displayed by its public outpouring after the 1998 Pokhran tests by the BJP government. Nuclear weapons need Plutonium and Plutonium can come from the civil nuclear reactors which have been kept outside of international inspections under the Undo-US accord. A rough estimate shows that using only these 8 out of the 20 reactors in India, the country  can manufacture over 2000 nuclear weapons in a reasonably quick time. This is the reason why India wants to rapidly ramp up its civil nuclear energy. For the jingoists in the military-industrial complex this is a huge opportunity for making even more money and to wield more power.

As they say, ‘A known devil is always better than an unknown angel’ and ‘It is easy to kick a man who is already down.’ That is called as real politick and all the parties involved here are intensely aware of each other’s strengths and weaknesses. 

The Congress - struggling with all its problems - knows well enough that if the US turns the screws on India, the Indian economy can (and will) collapse in a jiffy. While the US may have had its own set of economic problems; it is still strong enough to easily upset and destabilize the Indian economy for a short to medium period of time. 

The Indian economy is hugely dependent on Foreign Institutional Investors (FII) funds running into billions and trillions of dollars - commonly referred to as “hot money” as it can be suddenly withdrawn from a foreign country. If the US does so, the Indian Stock market will collapse taking along with it the already beleaguered manufacturing and services industries which are already tottering at 4-5% growth rates. Jobs will vanish due to the slowdown and the rupee will be under immense pressure. The Indian Current Account Deficit (CAD) is already too high, international scenarios are changing on an almost daily basis resulting in huge fluctuations in the crude oil prices – the single biggest factor influencing the rupee and inflation in India.

In fact, one wonders if the sudden fall in the Indian Rupee recently was a trailer which the US showed the Manmohan Singh government about what can happen if India does not toe the American line. The BIGGEST impact of all this will be on the public sentiment which will turn negative towards the ruling Congress regime resulting in an anti-incumbency vote while the fence sitters will hitch onto the “pro industry” BJP-Modi bandwagon ditching the Congress. 

All said and done, it is extremely easy to pull the rug from beneath the Congresses’ feet. On the other hand, if the Congress does indeed offer a backdoor entry to the US nuclear club, then the US can further sweeten the deal by offering some carrots to India. 

One such carrot was the rumored supply of extremely cheap US natural gas to India at very favorable terms. The shale gas boom in the US has resulted in unimaginable low prices of natural gas which is now available in excess for the US domestic consumption. This deal will immediately reduce the pressure on the rupee as well on inflation as India’s oil bill will drop substantially. A drop in oil prices will lead to lower transport costs and lower inflation which will be a huge “feel-good” factor within the economy. 

That is a good enough deal since public memory is quite fickle and this whole “sell-out” to the US will be a largely forgotten story by the time voting happens for the general elections in India around March-April 2014. People tend to look at current street prices, political sops, stability and strength of the government while voting rather than what happened six months ago. Besides this, honestly speaking, the nuclear liability issue is of little consequence for the vast majority of Indians who might in fact welcome such a deal as they believe that this would apparently give them more electricity!  A large section of even the well-educated Indians still looks at Nuclear energy as a clean, safe and cheap form of electricity despite Fukushima. The BJP and Left may shout from the rooftops about the abject surrender to the US, but eventually at the hustings, that will make only a marginal difference – that too even at best.

Another carrot which can be dangled to the Congress is that the US will support India for a Permanent Seat in the UN Security Council (UNSC). It is well known that this is a huge prestige and emotive issue for most Indians and any government which can (even falsely) promise that they will secure the UNSC seat will bag the popular votes.  In fact, the BJP may well be willing to dilute the Nuclear Liability clause for this carrot if it has a clear majority. 

In any case, the US knows quite well that the BJP is not such a bad enemy as it shows publicly. The US has a long and chequered history of supporting even the worst dictators and mass murderers for its own strategic and economic gains. 

The BJP is a sworn anti-Pakistan/anti-China party and hence if it comes to power, the Indian defense budget will at worst remain stable and at best will grow further. This offers huge opportunities for the US in high tech defense sales. 

Modi is known pro industry

Apart from this, the BJP – for all its public posturing – is a pro industry, trader based party. Quite like the US, they are willing to talk business if the quid-pro-quo is right. They are certainly not in the leftist/socialist mode as the “development” model of Gujarat has shown over the past decade. The US knows that its trade interests will be taken care by the BJP if the right carrots are dangled to it – the sweetest being the permanent seat at the UNSC.

Helping get BJP into power is also beneficial to the US in another way. If the UNSC carrot is accepted by the BJP and it agrees to dilute the CLND Act for the Americans, the Congress party in India would have no leg to stand on in the Parliament as they have themselves attempted to do the same.  In short, the US is in the supreme position to call the shots while the Congress squirms uncomfortably, The Congress knows fully well that if the BJP wins close to an absolute majority in 2014 - on the back of US pulling the rug - the BJP can well last for one or even two terms. Already marginalized and with no charismatic leaders in sight, the Congress can ill afford this political wilderness.

It is perhaps this fear that is making leaders in the ruling party take this self-destructive path of diluting the nuclear liability. With its back to the wall, the Congress can only make a deal with the US and live to fight another day. Else, it is curtains for Congress circa 2014.

For the Americans, it is a classic case of “Heads I win, Tails you lose.”

Cotton in the ears and sawdust in the skull - Shinzo Abe

Shinzo Abe – A PM without conscience, wisdom or compassion.

                                                                                                           

                                                                                  -- By Anuj Wankhede

Does this not sound unreal? 

Maybe even surreal.

Even as the situation at the crippled Fukushima-Daichi Nuclear power plant rapidly goes out of control, the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe seems to have his goal set on winning the bid to host the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo!

Abe plans to travel to Buenos Aires where the International Olympic Committee members will vote on Saturday (7th September) to choose a host city for the games.

Sure, we do not expect a modicum of intelligence from our world leaders today. If it is Abe in Japan, then it is the likes of Manmohan Singh in India or Obama in the US who behave like absolute fools when it comes to taking wise decisions. We, the citizens have learnt to have as little or possibly no expectations from these “world leaders.”

But has it also become a pre-requisite to have cotton in your ears and sawdust in your skull to become the Prime Minister of a nation?

That’s because the actions of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe seem to indicate that this is exactly the case with him. He probably has blindfolded eyes too (besides the cotton and sawdust) because he cannot see what’s beyond his nose (probably, not even that much)

The March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami shattered a major part of Japan and left it in shambles within minutes - causing enormous damage to life and property. Given the propensity for natural disasters - particularly by earthquakes – Japan was in a better emergency preparedness mode than any other country in the world. While this massive earthquake would have made many a skyscrapers collapse elsewhere and flattened cities, the good construction and planning in Japan saved further human and economic losses.

But among all these brilliant planners and designers were nuclear scientists who consider that whatever they say is gospel and Holy Grail. They claim to know the best because at some point they managed to add a “nuclear” tag to themselves and were instantly teleported from being ordinary human beings into pantomaths (persons who have reached the pinnacle of knowledge and know everything.)

At Fukushima (about 150 miles off Tokyo) on the Pacific seashore, THEY built was a huge nuclear plant with 4 gigantic reactors, none of which were able to take the brunt of the quake and tsunami onslaught and are now literally at an angle worse than the Leaning Tower of Pisa. “THEY” in this case is the Japanese government, prodded by the USA government and greedy corporates and which have now been mothballed by the utility that ran and is 'apparently' still running operations there however shoddily called TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Co.)

Much has been said, written, photographed and videos have shown about the current state of the reactors. The world knows the results of the commission of inquiry setup to go into the facts of the case and how TEPCO was exposed – nay, hauled over the coals - in that report and was shown as a greedy utility operator which cut corners to save money even after repeated warnings about plant safety. The world also knows how the governments’ regulatory agency worked in collusion with TEPCO and overlooked all these discrepancies. The world is also aware of how the government of Japan overtly and covertly tried to do a (shoddy) cover up job about the actual damage to the Fukushima Daichi nuclear complex and indulged in complete lies, half-truths and shameless cover ups to claim that everything at Fukushima is under control.

One could have forgiven all these and either condoned them or punished the guilty later had it not been for the fact that despite over two and a half years passing by, the situation at Fukushima has become far more serious than want it was in 2011. Instead of improving, things are rapidly going downhill and spiraling out of control.

And yet, the government of Japan - led by the cotton and sawdust PM Abe - seems be in a complete denial about the severity and the criticality of the situation at Fukushima just outside Tokyo city (and hence the point of him also being blindfolded.)

Let’s look at the material facts which Abe should surely be aware of:

1)TEPCO simply cannot be trusted – neither in its words, nor its promises, nor its abilities to handle the situation.

2) The reactor buildings are in an extremely precarious condition and another earthquake may result in a collapse of the whole structure.

   3) Heavy machinery used at the plant was damaged by the 2011 events and there is limited machinery to do any meaningful work immediately until replacements are built.
    
   4) Hundreds of tons of highly radioactive spent coolant water are leaking from make-shift drums lying in the open daily and radiation levels have risen to a level of 2200millSelverts – levels enough to kill within hours.
   
   5)The situation is so critical that thousands of fuel rods have to be removed from the reactors in an extremely delicate manner or else they will set off an atomic chain reaction which will go out of control and cause havoc.

  6)Over 150000 people have been evacuated (displaced) to temporary shelters with no clue about when (if ever) they will return to their homes.

Amidst all this, our friend Abe has this to say:

“I want to explain [to IOC delegates] that in 2020 this will not be a problem at all” 

False Bravado!

And yet, TEPCO itself has admitted that the decommissioning process for the plant has been forecast to take about 40 years and cost at least $11 billion. Independent experts say this is an optimistic assessment and the actual time frame and costs will be far higher.

But the bid for hosting the 2020 Olympics is not the first cardinal mistake/sin that Abe has made and is continuing to make.

He has been in a tearing rush to push Japanese NUCLEAR supplies and “technology” to developing countries!! Had it been a matter of Toshiba exporting laptops & televisions or Mitsubishi selling motorcycles or Hitachi selling cranes & train locos, one could have completely understood it. But for JAPAN which was nuked twice and is still limping somehow with critically failed nuclear power plants to export NUCLEAR??? Unreal. Surreal.

What can be more shameful than sitting a few miles away from the world’s worst nuclear disaster and yet sell the very cause of this damage to others simply to salvage your own private companies! Hell, these companies such as Hitachi, Toshiba, Mitsubishi Heavy etc are supposed to operate under the capitalist market driven forces. They are not doing any charity. Let them fend for themselves in bad times. It is not as if they have shared anything meaningful during their good times (unless it benefited them in some manner.)

Any other person of reasonable intelligence would have counseled his colleague from another country to give up on the nuclear energy dream and would have also pointed out to the shut 50 nuclear reactors around Japan and how the country still manages without them. Hell, even the Indian Prime Minister -with his near sub zero IQ - would have grasped that logic had Abe explained it to him patiently and with his hand on his heart.

But NO, sawdust does not give people intelligence. Intelligence requires brains while counseling others and for genuine caring, one needs a heart - both of which Abe has shown that he does not possess by his repeated crass actions.

How else do you explain the aggressive bidding and lobbying by Abe and his government for building Turkey’s nuclear reactors and winning the bid recently? This, even after knowing that seismic hazard is very high in Turkey – a country that has a history of massive earthquakes measuring about 7 and above on the Richter scale every 5 years causing huge damage.

Is this responsible or ethical behavior by a world leader?

I believe that this is crass, repulsive, unethical and unprincipled behavior by the Prime Minister of a country whose country has not yet come to grips with its own disastrous situation.

But now Abe seems to be going even one step further. He has his eyes firmly set on winning the 2020 Olympics and is being goaded along by vested interests from the West who have a huge economic stakes in Japan, the value of the Yen and the levels of Nikkei.

Their only concern is to have a dog and pony show for the global audiences and pretend that all-is-well in Tokyo and hence to come and do business with Japan. A showpiece to show that it's "business as usual."

Unfortunately, like everything else, what Abe and company miss out is this:

a)  Fukushima and Japan's problems are not going to get over just yet, certainly not in the next 7 years.

b)  An event like the Olympics will put extreme pressure on resources – both financial as well as human resources.

c)   It will shift focus away from the tasks at hand and will force the best planners to work towards the Olympics rather than finding creative and immediate solutions to defusing the Fukushima crisis.

Hundreds of thousands are still coming to grips of the events which occurred on 3.11.2011 and are going through extreme emotional (not to speak of financial) trauma. In such a situation, the PM should in fact have declined any offer to host the 2020 event even if it had been made proactively by the IOC.

Abe's attitude towards attaining cheap political and economic mileage smacks of heartlessness and places him right next to Queen Marie Antoinotte for complete callousness towards his own people.

All that the 2020 Olympics will do is to divert the nation’s attention from the impending doom and create a fake temporary feel good atmosphere.

Unfortunately, if the Japanese government does not accord the priority deserved to tackling Fukushima, then Japan as we know may well not exist to host the 2020 Olympics.

Are you listening Mr. Shinzo Abe?

Oh I am so sorry, I forgot about the cotton in the ears…..

Why the Fishermen around Jaitapur are Angry

-- By Vaishali Patil 

Convener, Konkan Vinashkari Prakalap Virodhi Samiti

The plan by NPCIL to establish 9900 MW nuclear project was first publicly announced in Sept 2005. The Jaitapur project is planned to be the biggest nuclear power station in the world. This project is to be spread over 968 hectors of land of five villages- Madban, Niveli, Karel, Mithgavane & Varliwada. However to fight against forcible land acquisition, the locals had formed “Janhit Seva Samiti”, under this banner all protests were organized.

Mr. Pravin Gawankar was the President of this Samiti. He is a “Khot” i.e. a big landlord of Madban. Another office bearer Dr. Milind Desai too is a big farmer whose family owned more than 150 acres of land in Mithgavane. There were a number of unregistered & unrecorded tenants on his land.

Fisherfolk in Sakhri Nate protesting against Areva's project

On Friday 30th Aug 2013 Janhit Seva Samiti’s president Mr. Gavankar and Dr. Milind Desai had a meeting with Maharashtra industries minister Mr Narayan Rane, along with 25 farmers. In this meeting where he submitted a memorandum of 25 demands on behalf of their organization. Wide publicity was given to this event. The event and the subsequent publicity raise many questions in the minds of activists and the antinuclear movement of India.

The actual facts and the reality of protests in the project area and against the nuclear power project was revealed by the local Sakhari- Nate fisher folks and Mithgavane, Madban Panchkroshi Samiti by their fisher folk leader Mr. Amajad Borkar, Mr. Mansur Solkar and others on 31st Aug 2013.

A fisherman looks into the sea off Nate

Although on paper only 2375 farmers were project affected as they actually owned the land in this area - but even though the fisher folks too are project affected they do not own any land. The fisherfolk have been in the forefront of these protests. From 2009, the anti-nuclear movement became very strong and the subsequent government repression was condemned all over India. Leaders like Justice Kolse Patil, Justice P. B. Sawant & activist Vaishali Patil were banned from entering Jaitapur area. Earlier, a youth lost his life in police firing. This aggravated the protests. At about this time many prominent local leaders were harassed by police by issuing externment process and falsely implicating them in acts of violence and disturbing peace.

Sakhari-Nate, a village of 10,000 population which is just going to be 5-10 k.m. away from the reactor, is the most affected and has been in the forefront of protests. They have organised a press conference and have condemned the decision of Mr. Gavankar to negotiate with the government and take back the protests. The fight against nuclear project is going to continue as many feel let down by Mr Gavankar. With or without Gavankar, the protests are going to continue.

(Update: In a meeting and Press Conference held in Mumbai on September 2nd, 2013, the local activists pledged to continue their fight against the project despite the "leaders" letting them down. Read here)

The author can be reached on Vaishraj4@redfiffmail.com


Video: Protests in Sakhri Nate, January 2013

(This is an edited / updated version of the article which appeared on 02/09/2013 on www.dianuke.org)

Why the Indo Japanese Nuclear deal is a bad idea

- By P K Sundaram  

Because Japan shouldn't compensate for its Fukushima losses by exporting nuclear technology to other countries. Because the Indian govt is violently imposing reactor projects on its people who are up in protest against the unsafe, uneconomic and undesirable nuclear expansion. Because going for nuclear reactors after Fukushima doesn't make sense at all.

The agreement

Having secured majority in both the houses of the Japanese parliament in the July elections, the LDP government has decided to re-start the negotiations with India for a nuclear agreement. This time Prime Minister Abe seems more confident of sailing through the internal opposition to opening doors for nuclear supplies to India. Last time, despite positive noises on both sides on the eve of the Indian PM's visit to Tokyo, the final joint statement did not even mention the word nuclear.

Abenomics at the cost of other countries

While Japan seeks to compensate for the huge economic losses incurred due to the ongoing nuclear accident in Fukushima, for India the agreement with Japan has pivotal importance for two reasons. Firstly, an accord with Japan is a requisite for the planned imported reactor projects in Mithi Virdi, Kovvada and Jaitapur as Japanese manufacturers supply some crucial components used in the American and French reactors. Also, the US nuclear corporates GE and Westinghouse are now owened by Japanese companies Hitachi and Toshiba and this necessitates a formal agreement with Japan for the US-imported reactor projects to take off in India.

Secondly, the agreement with Japan would be an important diplomatic achievement for the Indian government as it would mark the final end of nuclear embargo that India's has been facing ever since its 1974 nuclear test, which it conducted by diverting nuclear material that it acquired from other countries under peaceful rubric. When the US engineered India's re-entry into international nuclear commerce in 2008 by pushing the Nuclear Suppliers Group to exempt India, the atomic bomb survivors from Nagasaki wrote a protest letter saying it would be a bad precedent to effectively reward India, while the world is grappling with new and potential proliferators like North Korea and Iran. But to ensure India's diplomatic bandwagoning and rehabilitate the nuclear corporates who have been facing terminal crisis in the West, the US changed the global nuclear regime to India's favour.

The agreement is so important for India that in August it deployed Ashwini Kumar, an ex-minister who had to resign after the coal block scam, as the Prime Minister's special envoy to Tokyo. The Japanese PM Mr. Shinzo Abe will be visiting India in October and Japan's royal couple's visit in November-end will follow shortly. The two countries would try hard to finalise the nuclear agreement in this season of diplomatic parlays.

Voices of protest

Both the Hiroshima and Nagasaki Peace Declarations this year on the anniversary of the nuclear bombings in Japan mentioned the India-Japan agreement as a departure from japan's long standing policy to respect NPT and promote nculear disarmament internationally. The Nagasaki Declaration said "Japan’s cooperation with India would also provide North Korea, which withdrew from the NPT and is committed to nuclear development, with an excuse to justify its actions, hindering efforts toward the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula." Echoing similar concerns, Hiroshima's mayor said in his statement that the India-Japan agreement is likely to hinder nuclear weapons abolition.

Manmohan Singh with PM Abe in Japan

Earlier this year, in May during the Indian PM's visit to Tokyo, several groups registered strong protests jointly and independently. 335 civil groups in Japan issued a statement saying "We are international appeal against the nuclear agreement was signed by more than 2000 people from nearly 50 countries, urged that "the governments of both countries must refrain from promoting nuclear commerce, jeopardising the health and safety of their people and environments."

 outraged that...the governments of Japan and India are forging ahead with negotiations for a nuclear cooperation agreement. We who experienced the Fukushima nuclear accident are reminded daily of what a nuclear disaster does to people’s lives and to the environment."

And in a forwarded letter to the Prime Ministers of India and Japan on the occasion, eminent Indian social activist Lalita Ramdas suggested the two countries to strengthen their bilateral relations by together using the lessons of Fukushima and promoting sustainable energy solutions. She wrote:

“we want you to use this opportunity to welcome the assistance and collaboration with our Japanese friends in finding practical solutions and making the investments so necessary in renewable energy – especially solar and wind. Recent press reports speak of the Green Phoenix rising from the Ashes. Their aim is to be totally self sufficient from renewable sources alone in Fukushima Prefecture by 2040. Imagine that India, China and Japan could together transform the global energy scenario into a safer, cleaner and certainly greener future. This could be a wonderful moment for Asia and one on which there is need for powerful, independent and collective leadership!”

The agreement will further nuclear insanity in India

MithiVirdee Protests Apr 2013

The nuclear agreement with Japan will provide a boost to the Indian government's anachronistic nuclear power ambitions that it is following in complete denial of Fukushima. Huge, expensive and untested reactors projects are being implemented at places like Jaitapur, Koodankulam, Mithi Virdi, Kovvada, Gorakhpur, Mahi Banswada, and Chutka where local residents have been peacefully protesting for last several years. These projects are being pushed undemocratically and violently on the people whose safety and livelihoods are at stake. The government has violated its own safety rules and reactor siting norms in order to placate the western nuclear suppliers whom it has promised huge orders.

In August when Fukushima took a turn for the worse and the news about massive leaks of highly radioactive water broke out, the Indian nuclear establishment was busy promising a workaround for the liability norms for the domestic and foreign suppliers in a meeting of industry chambers. 

Fukushima Workers struggle to locate sources of new leaks (Pic. Aug/13)

The Department of Atomic Energy has officially sought an exemption from the Right to Information Act recently, which would mean complete removal of public scrutiny for it. Emboldened by its treacherous conquest of Koodankulam, the government will push these projects more vigorously if the Japan-India nuclear agreement culminates.

While the world is still grappling with the implications of the Fukushima meltdowns, completion of the Japan-India nuclear agreement would be anachronistic. It would strengthen the insanity of India's imposing nuclear reactors on its people against their will. It would further fuel the nuclear arms race between India and Pakistan and would provide the ultimate legitimacy for India's nuclear tests. The agreement would destabilize the Asian continent by promoting the ill-conceived strategy of India and Japan encircling China.

STRIKING BACKROOM CORPORATE NUKE DEALS

-- By Anuj Wankhede

ASSOCHAM Nukes meet – A Quasi Government sponsored event?

This would have been funny if it was not for the fact that this has the potential to adversely affect millions of Indians.

The Associated Chambers of Commerce & Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) held their 5th International Conference on Nuclear Energy of 2013 on 23rd August at The Park Hotel in New Delhi. 

This was nothing but a self-back-patting of the industry event. Even after knowing about the disasters that are unfolding almost on a daily basis from Japan to US. Not surprising, given the propensity of the nuclear industry to treat every disaster as another profitable business by offering so-called “safer” alternatives!

In the first session of this conference, big names in the Government if India Nuclear Establishment shared the stage, along with L & T (Heavy Engineering co. ) the President and the Ambassador of Korea. 

Mr. M. V. Kotwal of L&T sang praises of Homi Bhabha and the 3 stage nuclear program (which was effectively “sold” to Jawaharlal Nehru who was the first Prime Minister of India) 

As per Kotwal, it was Indian talent that was responsible for building the Tarapur reactors in 16 months. Funny- as I always thought they were American and then Canadian turnkey models replicated here in India - just a copy paste job! 

As far as the Fast Breeder Reactor (FBR), L&T also gloated about playing a key role in the development of India’s prototype fast breeder reactor (PFBR) -a key element of the Homi Bhabha plan - and he had no qualms about it even after considering that most other countries with extensive experience in FBRs like France and Japan have had to effectively abandon their FBR programs. 

Well, HOW much can you pat your own back???  

The joke was when

Korean Ambassador, Joon-gyu Lee

Korean Ambassador, Joon-gyu Lee, who spoke next, was on a massive sales pitch that included Korea’s “impeccable safety record” on nuclear reactors, completely ignoring the fact that even as he spoke, a large numbers of Koreans were sweltering through the summer because of the power shortages created by shutting down 7 of the country’s 23 nuclear reactors due to safety scams and other causes not detailed. (Reuters report here)

Another few gems were of course expected from the government end. 

And they came in the form of the Secy., Department of Atomic Energy Dr. R.K.Sinha and they did not disappoint because what he said was blatant sucking up to the private sector. 

He reiterated L&T’s Kotwals’ enthusiasm for indigenous talents, claiming that after Pokhran, India was deserted by all international nuclear cooperation and “we had to stand completely on our own.” Well, if these learning experiences were so great, then one wonders why India ever had to sign the controversial Civil Nuclear Deal with the USA and invite all and sundry to build nuclear reactors in India? But then, again no such doubt was expressed by Dr. Sinha who told us about the failsafe models that have been developed to build all the planned nuclear reactors at once… For him Fukushima is NOT a disaster, Chernobyl never happened and everything is a cakewalk.

File photo of Dr. R,K, Sinha

Dr. Sinha also dwelled upon DAE putting nuclear technology to supposedly  improve food and agriculture as 41 mutant seed varieties have been developed which is helping livelihood security (can you believe that he calls mutated seeds as development!!!!) Water security and reverse osmosis technology is another issue the DAE is involved with which is very important because water is polluted with arsenic and…uranium. Once again it does not cross the distinguished Doctor’s mind that the DAE-NPCIL have caused the problems in the first place!!! And then he of course, dwells on the medical uses of radiation, with a new cancer hospital coming up in Punjab. Again, it didn’t seem to occur to Dr. Sinha that in fact the DAE may actually be the cause of people’s livelihoods being robbed, of water being polluted and cancer case increasing…

Dr. Sinha ended with a pearl of wisdom that he said that he had read on the internet somewhere: “We fear things in proportion to our ignorance” …and vowed to end ignorance on all things nuclear so those people in Koodankulam will understand what a blessing they really have!!

Wow….how much can you grandstand Dr. Sinha? 

What ignorance were you talking about? Have you seen the latest facts from Fukushima that is threatening the whole of Japan? Have you even bothered to see independent reports and documentaries from reputed broadcasters like BBC on Chernobyl lately? I guess NOT, else you would not be making such asinine statements which make sense only in your nuclear community. Neither Chernobyl after over a quarter of century nor Fukushima is controlled yet… 

That is a fact Sinha misses completely and conveniently. He is also on a complete sales pitch!

There was no limit to this lying and deceit, until the Chief Guest for the  Conference, Mr. V. Narayanasamy, Minister of State for the PMO, Government of India spoke and which was the final white lie.  Narayanasamy focused on another theme - why the Indian nuclear programme is not progressing faster. This according to his “wisdom” is because of the many foreign NGOs - and surprisingly, even some Indian nuclear scientists who used to work for the DAE who have been spreading supposed “mis-information” since Fukushima. 

File photo of V. Narayanasamy

Well, call it sour grapes, but if the ex-heads of AERB start to question the Koodankulam projects safety, where can poor Mr. Narayansamy hide anyway? (details here)

But yet Narayansamy plodded on ahead saying that despite all these agitations, the Indian Government is committed to nuclear energy as the most important solution to our energy needs of the future, as not much progress has been made with solar for example, so the government will forge ahead with its nuclear programme in the best interests of the country, in order to bring back our growth rate to around 8%, nuclear is the only option. 

Well, Narayansamy needs to take a look at what the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) may have to say to THAT statement!! 

Narayanasamy – with his usual foot-in-the-mouth also claims that India must take on foreign hands and provide “proper information” to the people who will be living near the nuclear reactors so that they realize there is nothing to fear or be misled by foreign NGOs. In his own “analysis” Narayanasamy, cites a social media survey which apparently showed that 97% of people in Koodankulam now believed that the nuclear reactors are safe and that they also had been convinced by the DAE’s ample and clear information on this plant. Obviously and unsurprisingly, there is no reference to who did this study or what questions were asked etc. Tarapur had been running with absolutely no safety issues for over 40 years, so according to him Koodankulam would be fine as well. 

It was obviously just blatant lies in a series……For all you know, the “survey” probably might have polled some NPCIL/DAE employees?? 

“Someone must have insured Koodankulam—that was a condition of starting it up…who was that?” asked Rajendra Shrivastav, Managing Director of Nuclear Business at Alstom India even as he pleaded for someone in the government to explain in normal sentences what CLND actually means.

But unfortunately, all the illustrious speakers of the first session had already dispersed and no one was able to answer this question…Probably they knew that there are no easy answers to lure the foreign money while the CLND Act is still in effect (see below)

One is then left with the burning doubt that in all probability, no one insured Koodankulam and the government of India has started it uninsured - as this seems to be the only way by which the nuclear industry will solve all its self-admitted problems. 

The pro-nuclear advocates were quite capable of revealing the problems in their industry to themselves pretty quickly because the bankers and CEOs in the audience are much more likely to listen to their own kind. 

I would like to add here that in fact, if anti-nuclear activists had participated, then they would probably have just been dismissed just as rabble-rousers. The two worlds are perhaps too far apart and the languages and concepts just too different for a meaningful dialogue to be able to take place. 

The second session, however, allowed the pro-nuclear lobby to slip the noose over its own head. 

On the agenda of discussion was CLND. 

Well, THAT is a HUGE disaster for the nuclear industry and they know it and that they are really scared of it showed clearly at the ASSOCHAM conference.

The Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage (CLND) Act which was passed in 2010 but is now being

sought to be diluted by the government to favor suppliers of nuclear reactors.  This is because the foreign nuclear suppliers will now have to seek re - insurance for their projects and which will in turn push up their costs leading to lesser profits for these companies.

CLND was quite competently addressed by Mohit Abraham, a lawyer from PVX Law Partners. He admitted that the law as it stands is indeed ambiguous and we can’t expect corporations to enter into deals, at least nuclear deals where the stakes are so high, when there is a possibility that the law allows any citizen of India to sue them in the event of an accident. 

This fear was very much echoed by Mr. Rajendra Shrivastav, Managing Director of Nuclear Business at Alstom India who pleaded for someone in the government to explain in normal sentences what the Liability Laws actually mean…at present, he quipped, even someone who makes sandwiches in the power plant canteen may be held liable. He assured all present that his company remains interested in doing nuclear business but for 5 years (since the Nuclear Deal) they have been sitting around twiddling their thumbs and all they get is more negotiations, when what they really need, if they are to prepare for this nuclear expansion properly, is more or less firm timelines. 

Mr. Anil Kumar, the Inspector General of Security at the DAE, hit the nail on the head when he suggested that the veil of secrecy that this industry works under is the reason people think that they were doing something bad and he too suggested improved PR (AND THIS, from the head of security!!!). He even suggested that DAE needs to come clean with true costs such as decommissioning and said the public remains unconvinced that nuclear waste can be kept safely for half a million years, even if there is not so much of it. He himself assured the audience that all storage of high level waste is not a problem, but storage of large amounts of material that will eventually be ‘recycled’ in the FBR and may have to be stored for quite a long time until it is used, and keeping this secure, will be “a challenge.” 

It is amazing how the industry keeps hoping that the nuclear waste problem will somehow vanish. For them nuclear waste is not a problem but an opportunity to build FBR's!!Indeed, if experience of other countries is anything to go by, this so-called recyclable material may have to lie around for a very long time until the FBR is commissioned i.e. if indeed Indian scientists manage to achieve what no other scientist ever has—have a viable FBR comissioned and in operation. 

Uranium ore carried in open trucks

Mr. Kumar sent out a practical call for help to Assocham, admitting that as of the present there is no dedicated company that can provide secure vehicles for transporting radioactive substances. One wonders how they have been doing it for the last 50 years, although Mr. Kumar did mention something about normal trucks transporting radioactive materials in steel containers!!!!!

Well, this was a conference that was all about - Shooting oneself in your foot.

That is because the pro-nuclear industry simply does not see the end or the writing on the wall and go about pressing their own agenda. They are of course, ably assisted by the Government of India and Defence Establishment to set up more nuclear plants – all for their own benefits. Yet their biggest fear is PUBLIC OPINION which Narayansamy et al let it be known publicly. 

The Establishment may call it “ignorance”, but we call it “Empowerment”

(This is an updated version of the article which appeared on Dianuke.org today)

THE POWER OF UNKEPT PROMISES

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.

R.K Gupta

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 15^th 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.