Kudankulam protests spearhead sends legal notice to PM

Kudankulam protests spearhead sends legal notice to PM
Published: Tuesday, Feb 28, 2012, 22:20 IST

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has been sent a legal notice by SP
Udayakumar, the convener of the Peoples Movement Against Nuclear
Energy for the former's criticism that NGOs in the country are
receiving support from abroad for stalling the use of genetic
engineering in agriculture and leading protests against the Kudankulam
Nuclear Power Plant in Tamil Nadu.

Legal experts called this a rare instance. "I do not know whether any
past prime ministers has been served with legal notices by the
citizens. This is an interesting development," said a Madras High
Court lawyer.

In a recent interview to Science magazine, Singh said, "These areNGOs,
often funded from the US and Scandinavian countries which are not
fully appreciative of thedevelopment challengesthat our country
faces."

The PMANE has been spearheading the agitation against commissioning of
the two Russian built nuclear reactors at Kudankulam, each of 1000 MW,
which has delayed the reactors from going critical.

The legal notice sent on Monday through Udayakumar's lawyer M
Radhakrishnan asks the prime minister to make amendments to his
comments.

"My client states that you have made this false statement with an
intention to harm his reputation. The statements made in your
interview amount to an imputation which directly, in the estimation of
the members of the public, lowers the moral character of my client and
also lowers the credit of my client. Your imputation that the said
protest is funded by the United States and the Scandinavian countries
is an utter falsehood. This imputation of yours may fall within the
realm of 'defamation'. My client hopes that you, as the prime minister
of India, will immediately make appropriate amends to the statements
made against my client, and will not drive him to have recourse to
law," said the notice.