AFTER LAST week’s violent crackdown on anti-nuclear protesters in Koodankulam, the Tamil Nadu government and the Centre have reiterated that nuclear power is perfectly safe and essential to India’s energy security. If the governments are to be believed, the people living along the southern stretch of coastal Tamil Nadu are either mentally deranged, needing treatment by NIMHANS, or are gullible and prone to the influence of foreign agents, foreign-funded local instigators, the Pope and/or the Maoists.