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India strikes back at nuclear protesters
THE Indian government has frozen the accounts of four charities and deported a German tourist for participating in an anti-nuclear demonstration as it ratchets up claims "foreigners" are behind the opposition to the Russian-built Kudankulam facility in Tamil Nadu.
A German consular official yesterday confirmed Rainer Hermann Sonntag, 49, was deported on Tuesday night for violating the terms of his tourist visa, and that the consulate understood from media reports that he was accused of raising funds for anti-nuclear protests.
While the government has not released the names of the charities affected, the accounts of at least two Catholic diocese charities are believed to have been frozen on suspicion of having diverted foreign funds donated for poverty programs to the anti-nuclear protest, a violation of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act.
Father William Santhaman from the Tuticorin Diocesan Association confirmed the group's funds had been frozen last week.
But he denied providing anything more than moral support to the protesters and said the organisation felt victimised.
"The Bishop had only extended his sympathy and moral support to the Kudankulam protesters because some fishermen are Roman Catholics," Father Santhaman told the Mail Today.
The action follows Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's comments last week to the prestigious Science journal that the commissioning of two 1000-megawatt nuclear reactors at the plant had encountered "difficulties because these NGOs, mostly I think based in the US, don't appreciate the need for our country to increase the energy supply".
The federal government's patience with a burgeoning anti-nuclear lobby appears to have reached an end as it faces a pressing need to expand power generation to fuel the economy.
Kudankulam protest co-ordinator SP Udayakumar has strenuously denied taking any charitable donations and says the entire campaign is funded through local fishing communities who fear a Fukushima-style meltdown at the Kudankulam facility, built in an area of coastal Tamil Nadu devastated by the 2004 Asian tsunami.