Prove your charge or quit: Kudankulam activist to PM

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/prove-your--charge-or-quit-kudankulam-activist-to-pm/233367-3.html

Date: 24 February 2012

Prove your charge or quit: Kudankulam activist to PM
CNN-IBN

*New Delhi:* Anti-nuclear activist Uday Kumar on Friday criticised Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh over the his statement that the NGOs based in the
United States are fuelling the Kudankulam nuclear plant protests, and asked
the Prime Minister either to prove the charge or step down.

"The Prime Minister should take back his statement. If the Prime Minister
can't prove his charge then he should step down. The Prime Minister is not
an elected PM but a nominated one, that's why he is insulting the people of
India," said Kumar.

"It is nonsense to say that NGO's from the US and Scandinavian countries
are funding the Kudankulam protest," he said.

"The Prime Minister, who is the head of the country, can't make such
remarks. He has no sympathy. Lakhs of people are struggling and instead of
acknowledging, he is accusing us of receiving money. We are not receiving
money from any NGO," said Kumar.

"His ministerial colleague Narayansamy said the same thing. Why can't he
produce some evidence to prove his charge? The Prime Minister insults the
people of the country," said the activist.

Hiting out at anti-nuclear activists for the first time and questioning the
source of their funding, Manmohan Singh, in an interview in the journal
'Science', said, "The atomic energy program has got into difficulties
because these NGOS, mostly, I think, based in the US, don't appreciate the
need for our country to increase energy. The local NGO-led protests have
stalled the commissioning of two 1000 MW nuclear reactors."

However, supporting Manmohan Singh's claim, Iowa State University scientist
Dr Sivramiah Shantharam said, "The Prime Minister is right on the dot. It
is a very well known fact that international NGOs, both from US and Europe,
who in alliance with local NGOs whip up trouble. All the frenzy was whipped
up by them after receiving funding to create anxiety and suspicion about
bio-tech advancements."