[sacw] India: A peace movement is born

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South Asians Against Nukes Post
27 November 2000

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The Hindu
Sunday, November 26, 2000

A PEACE MOVEMENT IS BORN

After two years of local campaigns against the nuclearisation of India, 
citizens' groups came together recently in New Delhi to move on to the next 
stage. A report by C. RAMMANOHAR REDDY.

AN event of hopefully great significance for India and all of South Asia 
took place in
New Delhi earlier this month. After three days of deliberations, 
grassroots workers,
former members of the armed forces, trade unionists, students, 
scientists, doctors and
artistes from around the country decided to constitute the Coalition for 
Nuclear
Disarmament and Peace, the first country-wide network against weapons of mass
destruction. Sadly, the happening was barely noticed by the media, which 
is very
attentive when it comes to reporting bellicose statements and offering 
considerable
space to analysis that is only one step away from a call to arms.

A peace movement is not totally new to India. Over the years, a number of 
small
groups in India and Pakistan have tried to build bridges over the flames 
fanned by the
governments of the two countries. On a parallel track, a handful of 
organisations like
the Movement in India for Nuclear Disarmament and the Physicians for 
Peace, have
worked to highlight the dangers of South Asia going nuclear. The Pokhran 
tests of
May 1998 changed all that. While political parties across the mainstream 
spectrum
initially either vied with each other to express their support for a 
nuclear India or chose
to congratulate scientists who had demonstrated their prowess at the 
50-year-old
technology of nuclear tests, it was left to citizens' groups to oppose 
the dangerous path
that the Government had taken. New groups like the Indian Scientists 
against Nuclear
Weapons sprouted to work alongside grassroots organisations in the 
campaign against
nuclearisation. Small these groups were, but they were numerous and 
widespread
enough to deny the establishment's claims of "a national consensus" in 
support of
nuclear weapons.

While the campaign against the horrors of nuclearisation has continued, 
the actions
have been local and independent of each other. To build up co-ordinated 
action and
give the campaign a new momentum, a few groups took the first initiative 
to hold a
"National Convention for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace" in New Delhi between
November 11 and 13. More than 100 citizens' groups around the country 
interacted
over six months in preparation for the meeting. The results were there to 
see. Over
600 delegates, double the expected number, participated in the convention 
which was
financed solely by citizens' groups and individuals and was an entirely 
voluntary
exercise. This was not a "Delhi" show, as events in the capital 
frequently turn out to
be. More than 450 of the 600-odd delegates were from outside New Delhi. There
were residents of rural Rajasthan, Kashmir and Bihar rubbing shoulders 
with trade
unionists from Mumbai. Grassroots workers from Bengal and Tamil Nadu joined
hands with retired personnel from the armed forces. Artistes, students 
and teachers
from New Delhi were together with scientists from Bangalore. The 
organisation by
volunteers was remarkable. There were two days of intense discussions in 
more than
20 working groups that dealt with nuclear doctrines, militarisation, 
nuclear power,
networking, advocacy and campaign strategies. While discussions went on 
late into
the evening, the sessions were interspersed with folk music, street 
theatre, slide shows
and films. (The documentary "Buddha Weeps at Jaduguda" which gave a 
frightening
picture of what is going on in Jharkhand where the uranium for India's 
nuclear power
and weapons programme is mined will convince even the most sceptical 
citizen about
how casual India's atomic energy/weapons establishment can be about 
safety and how
callous it can be towards those living around nuclear facilities.)

In what gave the convention a truly global character, the Indian 
delegates were joined
by 50 representatives from Pakistan and peace activists from the small 
countries
(Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka) in the nuclear shadow of South Asia. 
Also present
to share their experiences were representatives of well-known peace and 
disarmament
movements in West Europe, North America, Japan, Australia and New Zealand 
like
the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, Abolition 2000 and the Japan Congress
against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs.

On the third day of the convention, the delegates decided to form the 
"National
Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace (NCNDP)". As the name 
suggests, the
NCNDP is not going to be a centralised organisation but a co-ordinating 
coalition for
groups opposed to nuclear weapons. The brief interim charter of the NCNDP
demands first of all that India stop assembly of nuclear weapons, halt 
development of
delivery systems (i.e. missiles) that can deliver these weapons and end 
production of
weapons- grade fissile material (i.e. plutonium). It also demands complete
transparency in this area and calls for proper compensation to all people 
harmed by
government activities in the nuclear fuel cycle - from uranium mining to 
reactor
operation to waste disposal. The charter calls for a similar roll-back in 
Pakistan and
demands that the five nuclear weapons states immediately de- alert their 
weapon
systems, commit themselves to a No First Use strategy and stop all 
research into
advanced weapons. (A 50- member national co-ordinating committee was also
constituted to prepare a more detailed charter for the first country-wide 
peace
coalition.)

The NCNDP also drew up a detailed action plan for the next year. Some of the
components are:

* To establish a "clearing house" of information to generate public 
awareness about
nuclear weapons and a lack of transparency in the nuclear power sector.

* To build up a dialogue with all political parties, mass organisations, 
religious bodies
and professional associations.

* To support organisations fighting the cause of nuclear radiation.

* To help set up a national federation of radiation victims.

* To work with the Pakistan Peace Coalition (PPC) to identify 10 schools 
and 10
colleges in India and Pakistan which will be "sister" institutions that 
will discuss
disarmament and peace.

* To liase with the PPC and prepare for a joint Indo-Pakistan civil 
society initiative
that would highlight the dangers of nuclearisation of South Asia.

It was not as if there was unanimity at the convention on all issues. 
Many delegates
had strong and differing views on India's nuclear power programme and the
Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). The discussions on power, in 
particular,
were quite heated. While grassroots organisations working in Bihar, 
Rajasthan and
Tamil Nadu - areas where the environment and health fall-outs of government
activities in different stages of the nuclear fuel cycle have led to 
considerable local
protests - could not see how the nuclear power programme could be 
separated from
weapons production, there were some who were against a clubbing of the 
two. If yet
these differences did not come in the way of the formation of the NCNDP and
formulation of a plan of action, then credit must go to the six months of 
preparatory
work during which many of these differences were aired and compromises worked
out.

In any case, a rainbow of views in anti-nuclear weapons movements are not
uncommon around the world. Coalitions everywhere contain differences on 
specific
issues while they remain focussed on the larger goals. Mr. Dave Knight, 
head of the
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in the United Kingdom, who was a delegate to
the convention, observed that "Where it took us years to agree on a broad 
agenda, it
is a remarkable achievement of the Indian activists to have come to the 
same position
so quickly".

Forming a platform and drawing up a plan of action is one thing. Building 
up a mass
campaign and lobbying with the political establishment is the more 
difficult and longer
term task. It will be a long haul. But a beginning was made in New Delhi 
on the road
to a safer, more secure and nuclear-free South Asia, which is quite the 
opposite of
what the nuclear scientists, the strategic thinkers and political elites 
have created for
us.