IAEA-Questionable Indian Nuclear Safety

 Indian past record shows various kinds of security lapses in relation to various plants and the related sensitive materials. Coupled with other events of nuclear theft, smuggling and killing have become a regular feature of Indian atomic plants and facilities. In July, Indian Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) seized eight Kilograms of nuclear material from three Chennai. It was reported that the uranium was stolen from an atomic research centre. The case still remains pending. On November 7, 2000, International Atomic Agency (IAEA) disclosed that Indian police had seized 57 pounds of uranium and arrested two men for illicit trafficking of radioactive material. IAEA had said that Indian civil nuclear facilities were vulnerable to thefts.
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On February 28, 2012 an expert committee appointed by the Tamil Nadu government on submitted its report on the safety aspects of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNNP) to Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, marking a crucial stage in the debate over the project. At the same time, the State government invited the People's Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE) representatives for talks on next day i.e. Feburary29, 2012.

However, on above mentioned report visible clashes has been noticed between government sponsored scientists and private but straight former scientists who were really worried about the lives of the local living around the project. In this regard M.R. Srinivasan, a former chairman of Indian Atomic Energy commission and member of experts committee while talking to the media reporters said that “Let the government have a cool view of the report,” but “I have not taken back my words on the issue despite that few government officials are satisfied over the issue.”

He further explained that on February 20, after visiting the nuclear plant and holding talks with PMANE representatives in Tirunelveli, Dr. Srinivasan had said the state-of-the-art safety features incorporated in the reactor had made it a ‘third generation plus' reactor.S. Iniyan, Director of Centre for Energy Studies, Anna University, D. Arivuoli, Professor, Department of Physics, Anna University and former IAS office L.N. Vijayaraghavan are the other members on the committee.

Meanwhile, Mr. Udayakumar has sent a legal notice to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for insinuating that the anti-Kudankulam protests were funded by United States and the Scandinavian non-government organisations.Advocate M. Radhakrishnan, who sent the notice on behalf of Mr. Udayakumar, said the Prime Minister had made a “false statement with an intention to harm his client's reputation”.

Notably, security of Indian nuclear programme always remained questionable remained. Number of accidents, theft cases ,killing of scientists and staff through torturing ohave been observed on various Indian nuclear plants . Whereas Pakistan being a responsible atomic power, has adopted strict measures at its nuclear plants so as to save the lives of their employees and the nearby population, yet India’s record of poor nuclear safety has surprised the international community in the era of ongoing nuclear age. In this respect, in the end of November 2009, more than 90 Indian workers suffered radiation due to contamination of drinking water at the Kaiga Atomic Power Station in Karnataka. Indian media got the story when many suffered persons were hospitalised, and it became impossible for New Delhi to conceal the tragedy.

The Nuclear Power Corporation, which runs Kaiga plant, did not reply to the media queries over the nuclear accident, while Indian Atomic Energy Chairman, Anil Kodkar called the mishap at Kaiga an act of sabotage. Afterwards, an internal probe by Nuclear Power Corporation indicated possibility of mischief by an insider who had deliberately added some heavy water containing tritium to the drinking water cooler. So it is most alarming that anyone can cause any mischief at Indian any nuclear facility. This raises more questions regarding the poor safey of Indian all nuclear plants.

In short , Indian nuclear power installations have not been practising the right safety methods along with rigid security measures. The incident at Kaiga Atomic Power Station is not the first one, On July 27, 1991; a similar incident took place at the heavy water plant run by the Department of Atomic Energy at Rawatbhata in Rajasthan. Nuclear radiation had affected and injured many labourers there.Indian past record shows various kinds of security lapses in relation to various nuclear plants and the related sensitive materials. Coupled with other events of nuclear theft, smuggling and killing has become a regular feature of Indian atomic plants and facilities.

In July 1998, India’s Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) seized eight Kg. of nuclear material from three engineers in Chennai. It was reported that the uranium was stolen from an atomic research center. The case still remains pending. On November 7, 2000, International Atomic Agency (IAEA) disclosed that Indian police had seized 57 pounds of uranium and arrested two men for illicit trafficking of radioactive material. IAEA had said that Indian civil nuclear facilities were vulnerable to thefts.

The commissioning of the first reactor of the Indo-Russian joint venture, originally scheduled for December last, has been delayed following the continuing protests by the locals who have raised safety concerns.

 On January 26, 2003, CNN pointed out that Indian company, NEC Engineers Private Ltd. shipped 10 consignments to Iraq, containing highly sensitive equipments entailing titanium vessels and centrifugal pumps.

In February 2004, India’s Ambassador to Libya, DinkarSrivastava revealed that New Delhi was investigating that retired Indian scientists could possibly be engaged in “high technology programs” for financial gains during employment in the Libyan government.

In December 2005, United States imposed sanctions on two Indian firms for selling missile goods and chemical arms material to Iran in violation of India’s commitment to prevent proliferation. In the same year, Indian scientists, Dr. Surendar and Y. S. R Prasad had been blacklisted by Washington due to their involvement in nuclear theft.

In December 2006, a container packed with radioactive material had been stolen from an Indian fortified research atomic facility near Mumbai.

On July 14, 2010 again created panic and sounded alarm in Mumbai when apparently Chlorine Gas leakage occurred at 4 a.m and over 80 people were taken to the hospital in a critical condition. The leakage took placed from a cylinder near the Bombay Port Trust in Sewri area. According to the reports “It’s a huge cylinder down below various other cylinders (from which the gas is leaking).

However, the signs of victims’ personals created doubt about the types of the gas in the locals. On the conditions of anonymity some of the renowned locals and businessman gave serious reservations and claimed that in fact theleaked cylinder was part of the consignment thatwas supposed to be transported to chemical industries which are world over known for production of biological and chemical weapons. The claim of locals could be true since as per page 24 of Section -1 of NBC Proliferation Challenges, Indian has already acknowledged its chemical warfare program in 1997 and stated that related facilities would be open for inspection. India has a sizable chemical industry which could be source of dual-use chemicals for countries of proliferation concern.

U.S. Department of Defense, Proliferation has also confirmed the facts in their various reports too.
Unfortunately, in 1984 accident at Bhopal plant also left unforgettable miseries where in Bhopal Union Carbide Pesticide Plant, over 8000 innocent people killed and more than 5000 suffered with serious injuries as a result of gas leakage in 1984. The affected individuals of Bhopal have still not been compensated and keep on crying for their rights in even in the highest courts. The entire discussions confirm that Indian scientists and authorities are lacking expertise in handling sensitive and dangerous material related to nukes and gases.

Nevertheless, the nukes experts always have shown strong concern over Indian poor safety and nuke arrangements on the nuke plants and handlers. In this regard New Delhi never paid heed to IAEA concerns over nukes safety and security. Almost 160 cases of theft, loss and misplacement of radioactive source have been registered in the local police.

I would like to express that Nuke Watchdog IAEA has not yet carried out detailed inspection of Indian Nuclear plants. The opinion of locals, customs officer, businessmen referred reposts in the article and gas leaking incident of Mumbai do confirm that India is preparing chemical and biological weapons. World community should ask India to stop further expansion of their nuclear and Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) programme.

Pakistan should also discuss the matter of nuclear proliferation with Indian Foreign Minister S M Krishna in ongoing SAARC Interior Ministers Conference at Islamabad.
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 By Zaheerul Hassan (KashmirWatch)

Rise of Hindu terrorism

Hindu terrorism is operative over a wide canvas covering domestic and international spectrums. India has been investing heavily in its notorious agency RAW to support insurgency, separatism, extermism and terrorism in its neighbouring states like Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhuttan, Sikkim and China. A sophisticated network of RAW is working to destabilise Pakistan. On domestic side, state terrorism is ruthlessly empoyed to impede freedom movements in Kashmir, Punjab, Assam, Nagaland, Tamil Nada, Tripura and Mizoram.

By Air Cdre (R) Khalid Iqbal

While militancy is receding in Pakistan, it is phenomenally increasing in India. Indeed it is being institutionalized in a rare public-private partnership. Pakistan’s security forces have done a commendable job to recover wide stretches of land from the jaws of terrorists. However, India is complacent about the rise of Hindu militancy directed against minorities, especially Muslims. Likewise, assaults on Christians and their property by Hindu mobs are on the rise; some gory anti-Christian incidents have taken place at various places in Andhra Pradesh, Assam Orissa and Kerala. RAW, civil and military officials, lower judiciary and fundamentalist political parties are hand in glove in promoting a strategy of militancy to cow down the minorities and pave the way for supremacy of Hindutva. Tapped conversations of infamous Col Purohit reveal the depth of such nexus, he says, “We are all on the same plane, Hindu Rashtra (Nation)”. He even claimed that General J J Singh (a former Army Chief) is “with us”. As a cover up to rise in its home grown Hindu terrorism, India spares no opportunity for tarnishing the image of Pakistan by attributing these acts to Pakistani outfits.

Peruvian Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) has recently discovered that European countries are being used as hot destinations by al-Qaeda to route money to India. Wikileaks have also mentioned the flow of money from Europe through Lima to India. Hindu terrorism is operative over a wide canvas covering domestic and international spectrums. India has been investing heavily in its notorious agency RAW to support insurgency, separatism, extremism and terrorism in its neighbouring states like Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhuttan, Sikkim and China. A sophisticated network of RAW is working to destabilise Pakistan. On domestic side, state terrorism is ruthlessly employed to impede freedom movements in Kashmir, Punjab, Assam, Nagaland, Tamil Nadu, Tripura and Mizoram.

After the last year’s politically motivated and highly biased verdict on Babri Mosque, Indian Muslims are baffled by yet another recent (mis) judgment given by a special court on the Godhra train burning incident. Ninety four people, mostly Muslims, were indicted in 2002 for their alleged role in the incident, when a compartment of Sabarmati Express was set on fire at Godhra railway station, near Ahmadabad. The trial court has convicted 31 Muslims and acquitted 63; including the 70-year old Maulana Umerji, who had been named as the chief conspirator by the Special Investigation Team. Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, the court accepted the conspiracy theory blaming the local Muslims for torching the bogie.

This conspiracy theory was initially floated by Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, within half hour of the burning of the train; he opined that conspiracy was hatched by international terrorist network, in complicity with the local Muslims through Pakistan’s ISI. This conspiracy theory was given wide publicity and was used as a sort of justification for anti Muslim riots of Gujrat which followed the burning of train. However, at the same time, there were saner voices rejecting the conspiracy theory. Godhra collector Jayanti Ravi had ruled out the conspiracy theory. Likelihood of a conspiracy was also rejected by a judicial commission set up by former Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav. This inquisition was conducted by Justice Chandra Bannerjee, and it revealed that burning of coach was accidental and it was not deliberately set on fire by a Muslim mob. Moreover, investigation by ‘Hazards Centre’, specialising in forensic investigations, also rejected the likelihood of a conspiracy by Muslims.

Mainstay of conspiracy theory has been the selling of loose petrol. There are no eye witnesses. Individuals who initially confessed of selling loose petrol could not stand the scrutiny and one of them even admitted that he was paid Rs 50,000. Kakul Pathak was one of the key prosecution witnesses. In 2007, Pathak, unaware of the fact that he was being secretly recorded, narrated that his entire testimony was a lie manufactured by the police to implicate innocent Muslims. He stated that he and eight other BJP members, who were also made witnesses like him, were not present at the scene of crime and were actually sleeping in their beds when the train was set on fire! Though Judge set aside the testimony of these nine witnesses, calling them unreliable, yet he upheld the conspiracy theory. Investigation by an Ahmadabad based Forensic Science Laboratory has established that almost 60 litres of inflammable material was poured from inside the compartment before it was set on fire. Report clearly says that the fire was started inside the coach and such a huge fire could not mushroom just with the petrol that was thrown from outside. This raises a question mark over the theory that the train was set alight by a Muslim mob that had gathered outside the train.

Ashsih Khetan in his recent investigative report for ‘Tehlka’ points out that there is no substance in the theory that it was a conspiracy by Muslims. He says that this whole theory is deceptive; it distracts attention from the truth of another conspiracy which was going on. Khetan’s investigation makes it clear that the real conspiracy was not by the Muslims. Khetan points out “That there was a conspiracy afoot in Gujarat those years is beyond doubt…It was a conspiracy by the State machinery to blacken one community’s name. And declare them the enemy.” Godhra was chosen for the climax of drama because this town has highly dense Muslim population. When the train reached Godhra railway station, all kar sevaks came out of train and started to have tea and snacks, at a small tea stall run by an old Muslim man and his young daughter. Kar sevaks beat the old man and abducted his daughter; they took her inside their compartment. As the train started to move out of the platform of Godhra railway station, two stall vendors jumped into the last bogey, pulled the chain and stopped the train. When the train stopped, a 2000 strong mob gathered around it. These people were Hindu extremists in the guise of Muslims, who apparently came for the rescue of girl but their real purpose was to throw gasoline and burning rags on the train. These people threw burning rags on the train to ignite the inflammables already placed inside the train. As a result, a huge fire broke out in the train.

Muslim community is taking the legal battle to the higher courts considering that police and lower judiciary in India, particularly in Gujarat, are well known for their communal inclinations. Earlier Malegaon, Samjhota Express and Ajmer blast were blamed on Muslims but recently an activist of RSS, Aseemanand Swami, has confessed his own and his organization’s involvement in these incidents. Soon we may hear similar version about burning of Sabarmati Express, which is up till now blamed on Muslims.

The writer is international security, current affairs analyst and a former PAF Assistant Chief of Air Staff.

Failure of India’s democratic institutions

 If some visitors to India from foreign countries go by the scenes on TV channels and by to the reports in our newspapers, they may return home convinced that India is already in danger of becoming a failed state. In a survey conducted by the Washington based Foreign Policy about four years ago, India ranked 97th in the list of 146 countries in the failed States Index.
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By Kamran Saadat

Over the last few years the criteria for assessing the failure or other­wise of the states have changed marginally but the most important among them continues to be valid even now — the collapse of the institutions of democracy. The facts about Indian society as revealed by a former Governor of Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra are quite sufficient to discern, why India is a failed state. The crux of the analysis is reflected for a common reader. If some visitors to India from foreign countries go by the scenes on TV channels and by to the reports in our newspapers, they may return home convinced that India is already in danger of becoming a failed state. In a survey conducted by the Washington-based Foreign Policy about four years ago, India ranked 97th in the list of 146 countries in the failed States Index. India, though its institutions of democracy have not undergone such devastating distortions as in many other developing’ countries, has the additional vulnerability of being surrounded by many failed states (Pakistan ranked 9th place, Afghanistan 10th, Burma 18th, Bangladesh 19th and Nepal 25th). Since the institutions of democracy are functioning, though with varying degrees of efficiency, India has earned the reputation of being one of the successful democracies of the world. However, certain disturbing features have appeared in the working of certain institutions which make one feel doubtful about their survival in good health. While it may be difficult to assess the vulnerability of these institutions and the democratic practices in India, one can easily identify two factors which should cause concern about India’s survival in good health as a state. The first and foremost is the all pervasive corruption in practically every sector of activity, public or private. The charges of corruption against those responsible for holding the Commonwealth Games in Delhi in October 2010 is a disgraceful indicator of the extent to which corruption has spread in India. In the early years of Independence, India was ruled by a set of administrators and legislators who were trained in the Gandhian values of treating public office as an office of trust to serve the people. However, with the rise of a new generation of rulers and legislators, corruption has come to be tolerated as an essential evil in our country. Public offices have always provided ample opportunities to the corrupt to enrich themselves in the short period of their occupying seats of power. This is quite apparent if we glance through the declaration of assets by candidates for election to the legislatures. Those whose assets were nominal just four or five years ago, have unabashedly shown large increases in their assets and no questions have been asked as to how they were able to perform the wonders of multiplying their assets. The reason is obvious. Most corrupt people who have succeeded in misusing their seats of power to enrich themselves know that no one will “cast the first stone” as everyone is guilty of the same offence. The tragedy of the rapid spread of corruption is indeed acute when we find that today even senior public servants who are expected to be responsible for checking corruption have no shame in satisfying their greed for money by themselves becoming corrupt. The government has reserved for itself the right to grant or deny permission to prosecute corrupt officials and thereby provide protection to the corrupt whenever it chooses to do so. An interesting feature of people’s attitude to corruption is that they are shocked when news of corruption breaks but very soon forget that eternal vigilance is the price a nation has to pay for good governance, as it is the case with liberty. Just two years ago, newspapers published a surprising fact that India was on top of the list of depositors of black money in Swiss banks and that if the government requested for the list, the Swiss banks could provide the information. According to the bank’s estimate, Indians have $1,456 billion in Swiss banks, which is more money than what the rest of the world has put together in these banks. Nobody appears to be losing sleep over these huge dishonest deposits. The second factor which has the potential of dragging the nation to the path of failed states is the absence of a clear policy on the part of the government on how to deal with Maoist terror. Unfortunately, successive governments at the Centre and in the states have been quite confused in their thinking as to what has to be done to meet this danger to internal security. To begin with, the threat to internal security was treated as a nuisance when violence by Maoist groups started on a small scale in three states, namely Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand. Later, more states came to be affected by this menace - Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Orissa and Chhattisgarh. Now it has spread to Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Uttaranchal. Whenever the question of Maoist terror is discussed in the legislature, it is common to see members of the Cabinet expressing sharp differences about the strategy. In the past, Prime Ministers took very serious objection to any member of the Cabinet expressing his/her views on what should or should not be done after a definite policy had been adopted by the Cabinet. But today no such discipline is being followed. Failure to take decisions in time has been the cause of avoidable delays in several government projects. The Maoists expect that if they hold out longer, government will one day come around to accepting their terms, including nonsurrender of arms. Decisions on important issues like dealing with Maoist terror certainly require discussions to know the views of the people but there has to be a limit for such discussions and talks. Otherwise, decisions when taken about issues like Maoist violence may prove to be the proverbial cause for failures on the part of the government, namely too little and too late.

kamransaadat73@yahoo.com