American NGOs Back Campaign Against Indian Nuclear Power Plant

By Georgy Vanetsov

American Nongovernmental Organizations (NGOs) are behind the protest against the construction of the Kundankulam nuclear power plant which is built with the Russian assistance. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh stated this in an interview with the American magazine Science.

“These NGOs, mostly I think based in the U.S., don’t appreciate the need for our country to increase the energy supply”, Manmohan Singh said. Owing to protests instigated by foreign NGOs, the power unit of the Kundankulam was not launched in time, and the commissioning of the second power unit has been postponed for a long time. The signing of an agreement on the construction of the 3rd and the 4th power units has also been postponed. The two countries planned to sign the agreement during the visit to Russia of the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in December. In short, all this has disrupted the development of the Indian nuclear energy programme and caused huge damage to the country’s economy.

Manmohan Singh said what the Indian press stated long time ago. For one, the daily Times of India reported that Western Christian organizations transferred 630 million rupees to finance the campaign against the peaceful use of nuclear energy in the country. In view of this, the Prime Minister’s statement has been warmly welcomed. People say that Manmohan Singh called things by their names and he said what he would have said long ago. There are some countries in the West, especially the Scandinavian countries which do not like India’s economic growth, and they have their own plans to this end.

India still remember how these organization financed by the West organized mass protests against the construction of metallurgical and Engineering factories and oil refineries many years ago. The Prime Minister has also blamed these NGOs for opposing the development of biotechnology in the country. “Biotechnology has enormous potential and in due course of time we must make use of genetic engineering technologies to increase the productivity of our agriculture,” Manmohan Singh emphasized.
Concerning nuclear power generation, it must be said that early 2006, the U.S. signed an agreement with India on cooperation and pledged to build nuclear power plants and provide relevant technology and equipment. But this process has remained stalled until now. At the same time, NGOs based in the U.S. have stepped up their activity to disrupt India’s cooperation with other countries in nuclear energy area. An attack on the launch of the Kundankulam nuclear power plant built with the Russian assistance is not simply an attack on a concrete project. This is an attempt to undermine the entire programme of Russian-Indian cooperation in the construction of nuclear power plants. In fact, Russia and India are planning to build 16 nuclear power generating units jointly in India in the coming years.