Dr SP Udayakumar is the coordinator of the People's Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE) and is running for parliament from Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu as the candidate of the Aam Aadmi Party.Arvind Kejriwal came all the way down to the southern-most tip of India and consulted with us in September 2012 well before he actually founded the Aam Aadmi Party. Since we, the anti-nuclear activists, were working hand in hand with the smaller parties here in Tamil Nadu, we wooed them to form an alliance among themselves. When that did not work out, we were considering the options to take our struggle to the next stage and to stop the Koodankulam nuclear project. We did not want either the Congress or the BJP to come to power in New Delhi as they both would persist with the same dangerous nuclear policy. So our people and various community leaders felt that we had to look for an alternative in the national political scene.
At that juncture, Prashant Bhushan came here and invited us to join the party.
We engaged in a dialogue with the party on a few specific policy issues. The AAP took a clear Aam Aadmi-friendly stand "that the local community who would be directly affected by an accident should have a decisive say in the placing of...nuclear power plants in their backyard." The AAP also promised to "examine the larger question of whether this country needs to promote nuclear energy at all or not at an appropriate time after wider public consultations."
Although the name of the outfit is "Aam Aadmi Party," the AAP high command upheld the principles of autonomy and decentralization and respected our freedom to refer to AAP in language familiar to local residents. So we have chosen the Tamil name of "Eliya Makkal Katchi (AAP)" that represents the "ordinary people" of Tamil Nadu such as the fisherfolks, farmers, merchants, workers, Dalits, minorities, women, children and the elderly.
We are happy to record that the AAP high command takes the sufferings "of the Tamil people in Sri Lanka at the hands of the Sri Lankan government and military" and the "unprovoked attacks of Tamil fishermen by the Sri Lankan military" quite seriously and feels that "all these should have been taken up very seriously by the Indian government with the Sri Lankan government and with the International community."
With almost all of our political sentiments and sensitivities, and perceptions and values accepted and respected by the AAP, we, the "ordinary citizens" of Idinthakarai have decided to embark upon a new and bold political journey with new leaders, new dreams, new hopes and new aspirations. Most importantly, we are happy to be in the company of sincere and committed social activists such as Medha Patkar, Dayamani Barla, Soni Sori, Rachna Dheengra, Sarah Joseph, Anita Pratap and so on.
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