CHENNAI: S P Udayakumar, convenor of the People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE), has dared the Centre to substantiate its allegations of vested interest and shady funding for the protests in Idinthakarai, by exposing the finances of his movement. He justified PMANE’s singling out of the Congress by saying he was forced to fight fire with fire.“The Congress, unable to tackle the protests, is resorting to smear campaigns to discredit what is truly a people’s movement. They are alleging a lot of things, like religious involvement, foreign funding and political motives among others, to trivialise the stir,” he said.“Truth is, Congress is trying to book its profits in the form of commissions, secret agreements and various other scams before it is dismissed to the ash heap of history. Just because we are born Indian doesn’t mean our lives don’t have value. The Congress must stop working solely in its own interests and against Indians,” he added.Udayakumar pointed out that while senior Congress leaders like Home Minister P Chidambaram went about as ‘national leaders’ despite serious charges against them, lay people fighting for their livelihood were being branded seditious. “They have alleged a lot of things. They have filed a number of cases. We are totally funded by contributions from local community. We receive donations from fishermen and beedi rollers, and are very stingy in our expenditure. If what they say about us receiving foreign funding is true, let them come out and prove it. What is stopping them?” Udayakumar asked.He insisted that PMANE had no political ambitions.He also attacked the Central Expert Committee on Koodankulam for, he alleged, evading any proper answers to the questions raised by PMANE. “The answers that they are giving are insufficient.” He skirted questions over the role of the TN government in the matter, saying he was completely in agreement with its actions.
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