South Asia Citizens Web

The anti-Koodankulam struggle is probably one of India’s largest social movements in recent years. Between 60,000 to 70,000 people have so far participated in this agitation. It is a Gandhian non-violent movement of resistance. The people mobilised are extremely well-informed of the hazards of nuclear energy. The activism and bravery of the women, in particular, has been the subject of many short films and media reports.

The strong opposition to the entry of the big boys of global retail is as exaggerated as the claims made by the government of the benefits they will bring. Both the pro- and anti-retail lobbies are wrong.

The recent regularisation of around 900 colonies in Delhi is an inevitable and welcome move. No city can allow a majority of its residents to live in conditions of illegality, particularly when that illegality is a direct outcome of its own history of urban planning. However, why are moves to
regularise unauthorised colonies not being followed by similar moves to regularise bastis (often reductively called ’slums’) that house the city’s poor?

Shri VS Achuthandandan, the Leader of Opposition in Kerala assembly and the Ex Chief Minister said that the underground laboratory -India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO)- being built under the hills of Kerala and Tamil Nadu may have serious consequences for the ecosystem and dams in Idukki district. INO is part of a US research study. High energy neutrinos beamed from the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) in Chicago, US will pass through the core and mantle of the earth and will be detected by the Indian observatory. This study has the potential of developing the newest weapon of the 20th century – much more powerful and indefensible than the nuclear weapons. The project came as part of the Indo-US nuclear deal signed by George Bush and Manmohan Singh in 2005.

Critical analysis of textbooks being taught in primary schools shows how the literature of hatred is poisoning our young minds