Report from Delhi Rally Against Nuclearization

S. P. Udayakumar reports from the 2 day rally in Delhi by the National Alliance of Anti-Nuclearization Movements.

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The "Delhi Rally" was organized on October 1 and 2, 2009 in New Delhi. Some 100 people had come from states such as Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Jharkhand, Meghalaya, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir. Scores of people from Delhi including the members of "Indian Youth Climate Network" also participated in the programs.

On October 1, 2009, a National Seminar on "Nuclear Threats to India's Children and Their Futures" was organized at the Indian Social Institute. The event began with Tamil and Oriya songs sung by Sowmini, Venice and friends from Tamil Nadu and Orissa.

S. P. Udayakumar welcomed the seminar participants and invited Neeraj Jain to chair the proceedings. Professor Achin Vanaik gave the inaugural address. Sukla Sen, Gabrielle Dietrich, Professor Banwarilal Sharma, Saraswati Kavula, Samuel Jyrwa, Professor B. M. Kumaraswamy, Dayamani Barla, Kishore Kumar Patnaik, Initha, A. S. Ravi, Soumya Dutta, Karamat Ali, Apram Jot Kaur, Tarninder Jeet Singh, and Advaita spoke. Praful Bidwai delivered the keynote address. There were several interventions from the audience. The complete proceedings have been recorded and may be transcribed in future. The seminar concluded with the closing remarks of Neeraj Jain and a vote of thanks by S. P. Udayakumar.

After lunch at the ISI, the participants left for Garhwal Bhawan where they were all staying. At 3:00 PM a Press Meet was conducted at the Indian Women's Press Corp, New Delhi. Samuel Jyrwa, Saraswati Kavula, Sukla Sen, Neeraj Jain, Gabrielle Dietrich and S. P. Udayakumar addressed the press.

Then Sukla Sen, Neeraj Jain, Gabrielle Dietrich and S. P. Udayakumar went to the Rashtrapathi Bhavan and submitted a memorandum to the President. The memorandum pointed out the dangers involved in setting up uranium mines and nuclear power plants all over the country and exhorted the President to intervene in the matter and to direct the UPA government not to proceed with the dangerous nuclear plans.

After dinner at 8 PM at Garhwal Bhawan, all the "Delhi Rally" participants had a strategy meeting discussing the various activities that we could undertake under the auspices of NAAM. The following decisions were taken with the approval of all the participants.

[1] The NAAM committee constituted at the Kanyakumari Convention, and the group of activists who worked on the "Delhi Rally" should have a meeting at the next NAAM national convention.

[2] Two types of organizational structure were discussed for NAAM; viz. national body of member organizations, and open non-membership- based organization. Since the former type would require a lot of administrative efforts, the latter type was preferred.

[3] The following action programs were discussed and decided upon at the meeting:

[a] Signature Campaign: 1,000 signatures of intellectuals and other prominent citizens would be collected; an online petition would also be posted for people to sign; and a mass petition campaign would be undertaken also. Members of NAAM would take responsibility to collect signatures. The campaign would close on January 15, 2010 and the petitions would be released to the public on January 30, 2009. January 30 will be commemorated as All India Protest Day against uranium mines and nuclear energy. Neeraj Jain and S. P. Udayakumar would coordinate the efforts.

[b] A video package would be made and distributed to activists. Neeraj could put some seed money for the project and work on it.

[c] Seminars would be planned and conducted at Jaitapur, Meghalaya, Bhavnagar, and Andhra Pradesh (possibly Kadappa, Vizag or Chikkakulam) .

[d] To organize the Meghalaya solidarity meeting, the local groups would decide the date and other logistics and let others know.

[e] When the US nuclear team comes to India, NAAM will organize protest demonstrations on the day the team enters the country in front of all the District Collectors' offices in all 604 districts in the country. Neeraj, Karuna, Sudhir, Sukla and Udayakumar will coordinate the protests.

On October 2nd morning also the NAAM meeting continued and the last night's decisions and plans were further discussed. The state units also held parallel meetings and decided on state-level actions.

After these meetings, the participants proceeded to Rajghat at around 11 am by two buses. Mr. Bernie Meyer, known as the American Gandhi, also joined us. Getting down at Samta Sthal, we all went to Rajghat to pay respect to Mahatma Gandhi. Scores of Delhiites joined us there.

At the Gandhi Samadhi, the NAAM activists surrounded the Gandhi look-alike Mr. Meyer and wailed and cried about the UPA government's nuclear policies, projects and programs. The activists complained loudly that the nuclear policies and programs of the government would hurt, harm and kill our people, especially our children and their descendants. As the wailing and crying went on, the visitors and the presspersons who were already there at Rajghat gathered around us and started enquiring about the campaign. We distributed the handbills to almost everyone there and then left for Samta Sthal.

The "Delhi Rally" started from there and people marched along the highway; we walked some 4-5 kilometers under scorching sun to Jantar Mantar distributing both English and Hindi handbills to the bystanders and motorists. The marchers were also singing, shouting slogans and making short speeches.

At Jantar Mantar, activists sang songs and danced to the music. Several activists such as Prem Verma, Bernie Meyer, Anil Choudhary, Dr. Krishnaswamy, Achin Vanaik, Samuel Jyrwa, Saraswati Kavula and others gave brief speeches. Packet lunch was served there and the activists proceeded to Teen Murti.

The IYCN (Indian Youth Climate Network) friends and their comrades had arranged a cultural performance there at the Teen Murti auditorium. After tea, we left for Garhwal Bhawan and passed the "Charter of Demands" of the "Delhi Rally." Dinner was served at 8 PM and with that the "Delhi Rally" came to a close.

A Personal Assessment:

Scores of activists could not come to Delhi because of the heavy puja holiday rush in the trains. Many others could not participate because they could not find a sponsor who could help them with train tickets. The fact that we could bring together some 200 people for the "Delhi Rally" from all over the country at such a short notice was appreciated by all. The program was perceived by many as a good beginning in what appears to be a long and arduous anti-nuclear struggle in India.

There was an interesting coincidence that the Department of Atomic Energy was organizing a conference in New Delhi on September 29-30 and October 1 while we were organizing the "Delhi Rally." Inaugurating the conference on September 29, the Indian Prime Minister announced that India would generate 470,000 MW electricity by 2050. Haven't we heard similar promises before?

The activists who came to the "Delhi Rally" are all very much energized and many of them have proposed to organize seminars in Bangalore, Ranchi and other places. We need to get our act together and start working.

A solidarity fund would be a great asset for our activities. The "Delhi Rally" was possible because of the contributions of all the participants, several other individuals and organizations. The accounts have been submitted to the NAAM committee and the advisory group. Similarly, NAAM could also benefit immensely from a mouthpiece and the "Nuclear-Free India" edited by Dr. R. Ramesh, Harsh Kapoor and S. P. Udayakumar, could be revived and made the mouthpiece of NAAM.

The "Delhi Rally" participants' list is being prepared and will be shared with interested people in due course. Krishnakant from Gujarat has posted some of the "Delhi Rally" photos at a site and they can be viewed by using the following link:
http://picasaweb. google.com/ tokrishnakant/ DelhiRally12Oct2 009?feat= directlink

Thank you. Posted by collective at October 12, 2009 09:10 AM