The winds from Koodamkulam
have already stopped flowing into our porticos. For many of us the issue is
closed, or so have we been trained to live the hyperreal. The first phases of
power generation are already on. ‘Experts’ have ‘ensured’ us that there won’t be
any leak. Even if there is, we could be told that the effect won’t cross state
borders!
But even after the chapter was
closed for many of us, reminders come in at intervals and press on us to see
how ‘cubulets’ of power fit together. It is difficult to work back the
combinations, in the way the final patterns take effect. But it will be
disastrous not to do so.
Presently, the ‘biggest’
nuclear deal is in the making, through the special economic zones in the
Gujarat region. But before getting into the specifics of the joint venture
between Westinghouse, Reliance Infrastructure and the state, let’s pause a bit
on the symbolic and exemplary connotation of ‘Gujarat’.
Starting from the cover up
campaigns following the communal riots that killed thousands, through ‘Vibrant
Gujarat’, there have been concerted attempts to sell the state as a brand.
Million dollar contracts were given to PR companies to do this clean up. The
resultant model was a nexus of violence and wealth. It inaugurated the new
algebra of growth. So there is a white wash on all the miserable social indices
and histories of caste and communal violence from the region. Instead the
‘lion-brand’ is etched atop. The Weiden Kennedy’s Indian subsidiary along with Coke
and Nike manufactured, for a lump sum, the logo for the nationalistic gimmick
of the government. The model from Gujarat now casts a pall over the entire
nation state; voted in thanks mostly to the combination of a miserable and
corrupt system that left office and for the serious lack of any alternative.
Koodamkulam, in ways, represented
the model that left office. Manmohanomics and state, tackled the crucial
questions raised by people with GDP figures (something which the present ones
also are not averse to) and personnel from the National Institute of Mental
Health and Neuro-Sciences (NIMHANS). As Praful Bidwai, then wrote, so “arrogant is India’s nuclear establishment
that it brazenly brands its critics insane and in need of psychiatric
treatment. It has asked the state-run National Institute of Mental Health and
Neuro-Sciences (NIMHANS) to "counsel" the tens of thousands
protesting against the Koodankulam nuclear power station in Tamil Nadu that
it’s perfectly safe”. For the state, the
whole resistance was nothing but a neurotic problem. Elsewhere, like in and around the mining regions
in Chattisgarh, Jharkhand or Odisha, where people have been further off the state,
paramilitaries or militaries were deployed: the Salwa Judums, the Cobras, the
Greyhounds (literally to hunt the ‘small creatures’ in the hills!).
The present state works in a
different way, there is much more professionalism involved in cover-up
campaigns (with or without ‘vibration’) and brand selling. The state, the corporate, and finance
capital, have been entering into dialogues at an increased pace throughout the
90s, albeit with some remaining, probably ‘unintentional’, checks and balances
from a planned-developmental state. These checks and balances have now been
totally gotten rid of.
Government out…Governance in:
Read this with the efforts to formulate new land policies, to do away with
social impact assessments, public private ventures through smart city networks,
promotion of private ports and SEZs, private military arrangements, corporate
farming and agreements with agribusiness companies (Monsantos…Cargills…the kind
that was involved in illegal BT trials and food price inflations), as well as
favourable terms set in patents and intellectual property agreements. It is not
for nothing that the entrenched media celebrates and writes travelogues from New
York to Nairobi or from Kremlin to Lahore.
So there won’t anything
positive on the human front. The Koodamukulams will go on, and worse, there
will be more in the offing. Agreements with companies like Areva from France,
with very bad track records on safety, are on. The French state gave shape to Areva mostly to
export its nuclear technology, especially after the leaks and ‘small’ issues in
its own backyard! After all who expects safety from private companies that seek
ONLY profit and after such accidents like Fukushima? It is learned that the
French government aimed to reduce its reliance on nuclear power by a third
after Fukushima. So wouldn’t they love a warm hug from India!
Now, Westinghouse Electricals
will enter into joint ventures with the Reliance Empire, with support of the state,
in order to set up networks of nuclear reactors across Bavnagar area. Reliance
infra founded in 2002 has revenue nearing 200 billion Indian rupees. If one goes a bit back in history, there was
the Pipavav- the first ‘private corporate facility’ to get clearance to be
involved in military infrastructure. Not that state involvement and increased
investment in military infrastructure in itself, was too nice or safe. But corporate
involvement means something significant and something profoundly insecure.
Pipavav came in the scene
towards the end of 90s, and thus exemplifies the impact of post nineties
financial reforms. Even otherwise, the 90s end started working against people;
not the least in the agricultural sector.
Bhavnagar, the early diamond
cutting centre with some of the most precarious labour conditions, by 2003-2005 periods
had the most number of agreements signed with huge private companies. In 2007,
after the bloody- state -mediated pogroms in Gujarat, it was raised as an
exemplar for development and that too with a totally privatized port. It went
well along with the already burgeoning empires by other corporate vampires. By 2015 beginning Reliance Infrastructure went
on to acquire major shares of Pipavav, and later Anil Ambani took charge of the
company. An ever more energized an entrenched Reliance is now getting together
with United States based giant Westinghouse in the nuclear sector.
Try to see how the Rubik’s cube
of power works out its colours once again. The state of governance twists and
tweaks the governmental apparatus, in steps and in procedures that becomes more
and more obscure. The celebrations of machismo, communal state of affairs, the
violence of fascist groups that prowl the streets as well as destroy the
cultural and educational infrastructure; all create a violent haze that
effectively mars vision even further.
