The hullabaloo in Tuticorin district, Tamil Nadu, concerns the Sterlite Copper Plant. The plan was to expand Sterlite and increase its capacity to produce copper. When locals of Tuticorin came to know about this news they gathered in thousands to protest the expansion. These protestors claimed that the Sterlite Plant was a major pollutant and they feared pollution levels would increase. To make matters worse, these protestors turned into a mob. The outcome of this mob???s erratic behaviour is that Sterlite has been shut down, and law enforcers declared criminals. As always, Modi and his government is blamed by opposition parties. As always, the RSS is pinpointed. As always, the unsuspecting viewer sees a situation go from bad to worse and isn???t able to discern why.
Up till now, Sterlite annually produced 4 Lakh tonnes of copper, after expansion, it would be a whopping 8 Lakh tonnes of copper annually. Most of India???s copper needs would have been fulfilled nationally, and we wouldn???t need to import, perhaps India could even begin exporting copper. This project would have made India self-sustainable and was in line with Narendra Modi???s ???Make in India??? campaign. Unfortunately, the word ???development??? in India has been equated to an uncharacteristic behaviour in a selfish person. Development is not selfish if it benefits the country.
To follow ???Make in India??? is nothing different from the economic plans of China, Israel, North Korea, and the Middle-East. It???s an effort towards self-sufficiency and protecting our economic needs. We are proud of India???s rapidly growing economy and our path to becoming a financially rich country, but countries at the top fear being dethroned. Modi???s ???Make in India??? campaign is an effort to ensure that we will not remain a third world country, that we can keep funding our defence institutions so that our nation can prosper safely.
A major point highlighted in the Tuticorin protest was that the police fired shots and some people were killed. That is true, people did die, it should not have happened. But what forced our law defending policemen to pull the trigger?
There were thousands of protestors compared to the couple of hundred police personnel. These protestors turned into a violent mob that abused people and damaged public property. According to hundreds of eye-witnesses, the mob chased policemen while pelting stones and beating them up with lathis. This same mob overturned vehicles and set them ablaze, buildings were put on fire, ambulances that save lives were destroyed. The clothes of female officers and were molested by many men. Tuticorin would have been decimated if the police would not have taken charge.
Tamil Nadu is extremely familiar with creating hiccups in growing projects. The districts of Tirunelveli, Tuticorin and Kanyakumari have faced the greatest opposition to national development plans. Churches have a history of leading protests in these three districts, which unsurprisingly also have the highest number of Christians. Before Tuticorin, India???s largest nuclear plant in India, Kundankulam Nuclear Power Project, saw many uprisings. This was during the Manmohan Singh government, and he publicly blamed US-funded institutions for the protests. Then Union Minister V Narayanasamy alleged that Bishop Yavon Ambrose of Tuticorin received Rs. 54 Crores to fund the protests against Kundankulam. The Home Secretary announced that bank accounts of four NGOs were sealed, as money was transferred from overseas to fund national protests and incite disruption. The Tuticorin protest also has foreign influence. Samarendra Das of ‘Foil Vedanta Group’ flew in from London and secretly met Sterlite protesters, he assured them complete support to continue the protests. After the protests in Tuticorin, the London parliament motioned for Vedanta Group (parent company of Sterlite) to be removed from the London Stock Exchange.
When it comes to the repeatedly raised issue of toxicity and Sterlite being a major pollutant, science should back all claims. The scientists of National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) and National Green Tribunal (NGT) had visited Sterlite and certified that emissions were within the prescribed limits. Yet without any scientific backing Brother Mohan C. Lazarus posted a YouTube video claiming Sterlite is a toxic factory. He stated that a protest will be held on March 24, 2018, in Rajaji Park Tuticorin, where all the Catholics, Pentecosts, Church of South India (CSI) will unite to participate against Sterlite. Christians have a rich history of debunking science, the Sterlite protest is just another name on the list.
Despite knowing the source of the protests, opposition parties, especially Congressmen and Communists, blamed the Central Government. These leaders took to social media and declared that Prime Minister Modi is a murderer, which is a shameful strategy to sway future voters. Congress President Rahul Gandhi decided to up his game on the ???Modi murderer??? tangent and looped in the Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh (RSS) for causing this protest. Rahul Gandhi???s favourite political tactic is to always blame the RSS. He blamed the RSS within half an hour of prominent journalist Gauri Lankesh???s murder. Apparently, prominent leaders do not know what proof, evidence and reasonable deduction are. These prominent leaders especially do not understand the putrid nature of furthering political agendas while standing on the graves of the dead. Rahul is adamant about proving that the RSS is a terrorist organization. As a country that is led by the Constitution of India and defined by the term ???secularism??? the stance held on the RSS is diabolical. Supporting the RSS is termed as ???communalism??? and supporting Mosques and Churches is labelled ???secularism???.
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