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print versionJune 13, 2019 Under Registered Post
S. P. Udayakumar, Ph.D.
Coordinator:
People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE)
Pachai Tamizhagam Katchi (Green Tamil Nadu Party)
42/27 Esankai Mani Veethy
Nagercoil 629 002
Tamil Nadu
spudayakumar[at]gmail.com
9865683735
H. E. The President of India
Rashtrapathi Bhavan
New Delhi 110 001
Your Excellency:
Greetings! May I bring your kind attention to the Indian State’s systematic violation of my fundamental and Constitutionally-guaranteed rights and entitlements and request your immediate intervention in this matter please.
My name is S. P. Udayakumar and I am from the southernmost tip of India, Kanyakumari. Losing three of my loving grandparents to the cruel disease of cancer, I took an early dislike for sea-sand mining, nuclear power plants, nuclear weapons and other such projects that give rise to radiation and cause cancers. As a result, I became an avowed anti-nuclear activist. I have been writing, speaking and organizing against the Indian government’s undemocratic scheme of dragging us all toward nuclear annihilation.
With my long years of anti-nuclear activism, I happened to lead the anti-Koodankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNPP) struggle that has been completely nonviolent, peaceful and democratic. But the UPA government headed by Dr. Manmohan Singh tried to crush our struggle by falsely accusing us of following certain caste and religious affiliations. When they could not win in that treacherous scheme, they started accusing us of receiving foreign funds with innuendos that I was working for the United States and that I was seditious etc.
The NDA government headed by Mr. Narendra Modi has been toeing the same line of the UPA government when it comes to nuclear energy, and anti-nuclear struggles and activists. They also brand us all as Urban-Naxals, Maoists, anti-Indians, seditious, separatists, foreign stooges and so forth. Most of the state governments in India go out of their way to please the ruling dispensation in Delhi and to protect their own political and pecuniary interests.
The Tamil Nadu government, for instance, filed some 380 cases including sedition, ‘waging war on the State,’ attempt to murder and so forth against me and my colleagues. No one in this country, not even the Honorable Supreme Court, has asked the central and state authorities why a group of nonviolent protestors are considered to be seditious and why our peaceful struggle is deemed to be a ‘war on the Indian State.’
My and my wife’s bank accounts have been frozen for the past seven years. My passport has been impounded and a ‘look out’ notice has been issued to all the ports and airports in the country. My family with my wife, children and aged parents has been constantly harassed by intrusive CIDs and police personnel. My home has been under the police scanner all the time and I am kept under police surveillance all the 24 hours of the day. Police and intelligence officials come home; call me, my family members, friends and associates all the time; inquire about my movements and activities; and beleaguer those who invite me for any programs and events.
On May 21-22, 2019, I was put under house arrest and later detained in a local police station for a whole day without any arrest warrant whatsoever. I was prevented from attending a religious ceremony held in honor of one Ms. Snowlin, a 17-year old girl shot dead along with 12 others in the anti-Sterlite agitation at Thoothukudi on May 22, 2018.
A colleague of mine, Mr. R. S. Mugilan, has been missing for the past four months and no meaningful steps have been taken to trace him or to explain the mystery behind his disappearance.
On June 11, 2019 when I travelled to Tirunelveli, a neighboring town, to organize a meeting of anti-nuclear activists, I was harassed and hounded by the state police for no reason. The Tamil Nadu Police does not grant permission to organize any peaceful and nonviolent protest or to organize an agitation against an important public issue. Even if we organize an indoor meeting in a privately-owned hall, the Police intimidate the owner of the hall and foil those meetings.
All these pro-government and pro-corporate but anti-people and anti-democratic measures of the state government and the Indian State as a whole do not augur well for the freedom, independence and human rights of our citizens. May I point out here that I am not a terrorist, nor do I advocate violence, or destroy private or public properties, or provoke melee and mayhem in my local community or anywhere else in the country.
When the ‘ordinary citizens’ of India, who have a mind of their own and think through government’s policies and programs, take a clear stand against setting up nuclear power plants in their communities, the better privileged and empowered citizens such as myself offer the little knowledge and expertise that we have to assist them. I earnestly believe that this is not an anti-people or anti-national criminal activity. In fact, this kind of solidarity and activism alone nurtures the democratic heritage of our country.
When the State elites sign secretive deals with foreign countries and their corporations, safeguard their personal interests and profits, do not take the people into confidence, and compromise our national interests and our very sovereignty, the civil society members are expected to be silent and subservient. Our disagreement and dissent are deemed to be seditious. We are treated on par with dreaded terrorists and dangerous criminals. If the State treats peaceful activists and our nonviolent dissension with this kind of contemptuousness, vehemence and terrorization, what is the message we all would be sending to the youth of this country?
All this make me wonder if we are living in a free, independent and democratic country that respects people’s individual freedoms, human rights and dignity. I am also quite puzzled if there is indeed any value for my Indian citizenship anymore and if the Constitutional guarantees offered to me as an Indian citizen are still valid.
May I request you to intervene in my situation and resume my passport, defreeze my and my wife’s bank accounts, and cancel all the false FIRs filed against me and my colleagues as soon as possible please. If my genuine and life-threatening grievances are not addressed immediately, I inform you with all humility and respect that I will embark on a hunger strike from the upcoming Independence Day at the southernmost tip of our country, Kanyakumari, to bring the nation’s attention to this anti-people and anti-democratic situation.
Looking forward to your careful consideration of these undemocratic and authoritarian developments and happenings in our country and your favorable intervention, I send you my best personal regards and all peaceful wishes,
Cordially,
S. P. Udayakumar, Ph.D.
Copies to:
[1] The Chairperson
National Human Rights Commission
Block-C, GPO Complex, INA
New Delhi 110 023
[2] The Chairperson
State Human Rights Commission Tamil Nadu
Thiruvarangam
143, P.S. Kumarasamy Raja Salai, (Greenways Road)
Chennai 600 028
[3] Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)
Palais des Nations
CH-1211 Geneva 10
Switzerland
civilsociety@ohchr.org
[4] Amnesty International
Indians for Amnesty International Trust
Ground Floor, # 235, 13th cross
Indira Nagar II Stage
Bangalore 560 038
contact@amnesty.org.in
[5] Human Rights Watch
350 Fifth Avenue, 34th floor
New York, NY 10118-3299
USA
hrwpress@hrw.org
[6] People’s Watch
32, Besant Rd, Chockikulam
Madurai 625 108
Tamil Nadu, India
[7] People’s Commission on Shrinking Democratic Space (PCSDS)
New Delhi
