A Report by Praful Bidwai
They came from near the uranium mines of Jaduguda and the nuclear test site at Pokharan. They represented the Adivasis of the Narmada Valley, the industrial workers of Mumbai, the artisanal fisherfolk of Tamil Nadu, and the peasants of the Gangetic delta of West Bengal. They came from schools and colleges, from art studios and science laboratories, from community health organisations and right-to know campaigns. From the semi-desert of Baluchistan, the lush-green south of Sri Lanka, the paddy-growing plains of Bangladesh.
They were feminists and social activists, trade unionists and kisan sabha workers, writers and journalists, physicians and engineers, teachers and students, environmentalists and people?s science activists, Gandhians and post-modernists, human-rights campaigners and social scientists, artists and film-makers, musicians and theatre people, even former generals and admirals. They also came from Japan and England, Holland and Malaysia, America and Australasia, South Africa and France.
They came with hundreds of one-metre-by-one-metre cloth banners signed by thousands, and with scores of posters and paper-crane buntings. They spoke Oriya and Rajasthani, Sindhi and Telugu, Chhattisgarhi and Gujarati, Punjabi and Tamil, English and French?
The 600-plus delegates to India?s first-ever National Convention for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace held in New Delhi comprised the most varied gathering of peace activists ever assembled in India. It was, as former Chief of Naval Staff L. Ramdas put it, ?a veritable peace fest? and an altogether exciting historic landmark?.
The Convention was the culmination of a one-year-long process of meetings and consultations involving nearly 120 groups and organisations, as well as individual peace activists, in more than 10 Indian cities. It was also the beginning of a new phase in India?s broad-based Rainbow Coalition-type movement for nuclear weapons abolition.
The Convention offered Indian peace activists the first national-level opportunity to debate a range of theoretical and practical issues, exchange experiences, and achieve a degree of clarity on aims and methods. It established India?s first-ever Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace (CNDP), a network with a 50-member Coordination Committee.
The Coalition gives India?s peace movement an organised national presence and profile. This fills a major void. Since the 1998 nuclear tests, there have been sustained-and growing-protests in more than 40 cities against weapons of mass destruction and India?s nuclear policy volte face. These tended to be discrete, and unconnected to a coalitional structure with a national (and international) presence, profile and perspective.
Matters changed with networking among different groups early in 2000 and the holding of three preparatory meetings-in Nagpur (on March 26 and July 31), and in Delhi (on October 7), interspersed with an intense and very robust email debate on the Convention?s concept, function, programme, organisation, composition, finance and logistics.
Three-fourths of the Convention?s delegates came from outside Delhi. They all paid for their own travel and on an average spent a week in preparing for and attending the Convention.
There were 50 delegates from Pakistan (down from 60 owing to nasty visa problems), 15 from the rest of South Asia, and about 20 peace activists from Australasia, Northeast and Southeast Asia, Africa, Europe and America. They included star campaigners such as Bruce Kent and Jeremy Corbyn (MP) from the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), representatives of the Abolition-2000 network, and Japanese activists, besides the Pakistan Peace Coalition.
The Programme of the Convention, spread over three days, was divided into five Plenaries, 22 Working Group sessions in four broad categories, and cultural events culminating in ?Celebration of Peace?, with live music, theatre and poetry recital, in Central Delhi.
The venue for the first two days was Springdales School (Dhaula Kuan). The Final Plenary was at Lady Shri Ram College (Lajpat Nagar), followed by the Mandi House public event.
The flow of the Convention?s deliberations led from an analysis of recent international and national developments; discussions on how to construct a strong moral, legal, political and security-based case against nuclear weapons and their impact; understanding the experience of peace movements regionally and globally; and developing strategies and campaign tools for an abolition movement in South Asia.
The deliberations ended with the adoption of an Action Plan and an Interim Charter, and the election of a Coordination Committee. The Action Plan includes a number of specific programmes and campaigns, including regional disarmament conventions and sectoral meetings of professionals, advocacy and lobbying of political parties, ?twinning? of 10 anti-nuclear weapons schools and colleges in India and Pakistan, institutionalising a ?Nuclear Disarmament and Peace Week? from August 4 to 10 every year, and setting up a national federation of radiation victims, besides enhancing the South Asian peace movement?s presence in international peace forums.
The Inaugural Plenary, chaired by Gandhian Nirmala Deshpande and social scientist Rajni Kothari, set the tone and broad agenda of the Convention. The speakers included novelist Arundhati Roy, former Admiral L. Ramdas (on Nuclear Abolition: The Task Ahead), energy scientist A.K.N. Reddy (The Immorality of Nuclear Weapons), Narmada Bachao Andolan leader Medha Patkar (The Case for Peace) and M.B. Naqvi and Karamat Ali (both from Pakistan Peace Coalition), besides Praful Bidwai (who introduced the Convention?s rationale), as well as the two chairs who read a few of the 30-plus solidarity messages received from peace networks and organisations and one government (New Zealand).
The principal thrust of the speeches was on the immorality of nuclear weapons, the fallacy of nuclear deterrence, the crucial importance of comprehensive or human security, and need to build the broadest possible social coalition for peace.
Following the Plenary, the first set of Working Groups dealt with ?The Case against Nuclear Weapons?, with five sessions on Nuclear Doctrines, Peace and Security Issues in the Global Scenario; Security Issues and Nuclear Weaponisation of South Asia; Militarisation and the Scientific Establishment; Indian Security and the Draft Nuclear Doctrine; and Nuclear Restraint Regimes: CTBT, FMCT, De-alerting, etc.
The discussions were initiated wherever possible by mixed teams from India, Pakistan and elsewhere, and encouraged full participation from all present in Indian languages (with informal interpretation) as well as English.
The Groups stressed the deterioration in South Asian security caused by nuclearisation, the further hardening of India?s (Pakistan?s) nuclear postures since 1998, and the growing danger of a new arms race from U.S. anti-ballistic missile programmes. Differences between participants remained sharp on the issue of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, although there was better appreciation of divergent positions. There was complete unanimity that there must be no further nuclear tests, no acquisition of fissile material and no research on nuclear weapons. (See the attached tentative Charter.)
The second category of Working Groups dealt with ?The Impact of Nuclear Weapons on the People?, with sessions devoted to the Culture of Militarisation and Male Supremacism; Communalism, Nationalism and the Bomb; Connections between Nuclear Weapons and Nuclear Power and Issues of Safety, Transparency and Efficacy; the Economic and Social Costs of the Bomb; Legitimising Nuclear Weapons: The Role of the Media; and Effects of Nuclear Explosions/Accidents.
These Groups generated a potent critique of the ideology of nuclearism and its contribution to virulent nationalism, communalism, and male-supremacism, with an emphasis on nuclearisation?s onerous economic and social costs and harmful impact on health, food security, employment and education. The mainstream media?s role in promoting chauvinistic nationalism and in legitimising nuclearism through unbalanced news and comment came in for widespread criticism-itself validated by the appallingly poor media coverage the Convention received.
Surprisingly, the issue of the nuclear power-weapons link, and of the viability and desirability of nuclear power generation, which was widely expected to generate heated debate, produced a remarkably sober discussion, with even the staunchest proponents of nuclear power conceding that in their existing designs and operational practices, most nuclear installations are far from safe or economical.
They did not contest AKN Reddy?s computation of the high cost of nuclear electricity, or his support for cheaper alternatives. There was a dispute over the inevitability of the power-weapons nexus. But there was full unanimity that there must be no compromise on health, safety standards or transparency.
Physicist M.V. Ramana made a significant presentation on the effects of nuclear explosions and accidents, building upon his earlier work, Bombing Bombay.
The Evening Plenary, chaired by Perin Romesh Chandra, heard summaries of the discussions in the Working Groups.
November 12 opened with a Plenary, chaired by Syeda Hamid, Zaki Hasan (Pakistan), Kuldip Nayar, Bishop William Moses, and heard a series of presentations on the activities and concerns of delegates representing different regions, sectors and constituencies.
The Plenary discussed the movement?s progress in different parts of India, in South Asia and the world. Of particular importance were reports from the states, the semi-urban areas of Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu, besides campaigns in major cities like Calcutta and Bangalore.
This Plenary was the main forum at which the international delegates spoke about their activities in national movements and in international coalitions like Abolition-2000 (a network over 2000 peace groups), New Agenda Coalition (comprised of Brazil, Egypt, Mexico, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa and Sweden), the Middle Powers Initiative, the World Court Project (which led to the legal verdict against nuclear weapons in 1996), and the Nuclear Weapons-Free Zone Network, etc.
The speakers outlined the opportunities available to peace activists to lobby international disarmament forums. They emphasised the significance of the growing South Asian peace movement for abolition efforts worldwide, and more important, for the global peace movement. Some said the centre of gravity of the global movement is shifting to South Asia. Some others argued that the South Asian abolition campaign has already become an indispensable input into the international movement, one which would rejuvenate it, and help it get out of the state of decline into which it has drifted in many NATO and former Warsaw Pact countries after the Cold War ended.
Following the Plenary was the third set of Working Groups, on building a ?Movement in India Against Nuclear weapons: Sectoral and Statewise Strategies?. Simultaneous with these, there was a special Session on the ?Campaign for Safety and Environmental Aspects of Nuclear Power and Uranium Mining?, chaired by Dhirendra Sharma and Ghanashyam Biruli, the grassroots activists from Jaduguda uranium mines.
The eight Working Groups focused upon specific sectors; including Statewise Strategies; Scientists and Doctors; Media; NGOs, Panchayats, States; Women; Trade Unions; and Artists.
Their deliberations produced specific proposals on how to put nuclear disarmament on the agenda of youth, NGOs, medical and scientific associations, trade unions, the women?s movement, etc, by underscoring the practical impact of nuclearisation on their priorities, as well as on the larger society and politics. Of particular relevance was the Working Group on sensitising the Media to non-conventional notions of security.
This was followed by the screening of an award-winning documentary by Shri Prakash (Jharkhand), ?The Buddha Weeps at Jaduguda?, which depicts the havoc wreaked upon the health of uranium miners and their families by patently unsafe practices and avoidable exposure to radioactivity and other toxins.
The fourth (and final) session of the Working Groups was devoted to the nitty-gritty of developing ?Networking, Methods, Forms-Campaign Experience: Methodologies and Campaign Materials for Different Constituencies?.
These sessions focused on educational material and cultural products, including videos, films, theatre, songs, dance, posters, cartoons, etc and discussions on Networking and Resource-Sharing and Advocacy. Another Working Group produced a draft ?Plan of Action? to be presented to the Final Plenary.
The Evening Plenary of November 12, chaired by feminist-social activist Lalita Ramdas and fishworkers? unionist Tom Kocherry, heard reports from the four Working Groups, besides watching an educational slide-show by Chennai-based scientists, simplifying complex facts of nuclear physics, on how the Bomb works, and what makes it an illegitimate weapon of mass destruction.
The Closing Plenary at Lady Shri Ram College on November 13 discussed the Plan of Action, adopted a (tentative) Charter for Nuclear Disarmament for Peace and, most important, established a Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and choose its Coordination Committee. The Plenary Panel consisted of Prabir Purkayastha, Jaya Velankar, S.K. Biswas, J. Sri Raman, Ilina Sen and Sandeep Pandey, chaired by L Ramdas.
There were more than 30 interventions and many amendments to the Draft Charter, itself subjected to an intense debate over six months. Some speakers questioned the Draft statement of India?s nuclear policy after the first Pokharan test of 1974. Several underlined the importance of broadening the concept of peace.
Many speakers noted the uneven development of the movement in different regions, and underlined the need to strengthen it especially in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Kerala, the Northeastern states, etc and to address special constituencies like environmentalists, educationists, political leaders, and Dalits.
However, so numerous were the Charter amendments, both substantive and stylistic, that the chair felt they could not be all incorporated into a document to be adopted that very morning. The Plenary broadly accepted that it adopt a one-page summary of the thrust of the Charter, leaving the final document to the Coordination Committee. This summary was accepted (and later released to the press).
The Plenary adopted the Plan of Action (attached below) and resolved to work on a clearing house of information and campaign material, on advocacy and lobbying, besides implementing the specific campaigns outlined in programme.
The Plenary established a Coalition for Nuclear disarmament and Peace (CNDP) based on the principles contained in the Draft Charter and Plan of Action. Finally, the Plenary voted for a 50-member Coordination Committee. This Committee will have a Secretariat of 12 members, no more than five of whom will be from Delhi.
Forty members were proposed by the Nominations Committee (formed in the first Plenary, which had received over 90 names). It selected the 40 on the basis of their contribution to the movement, as well as regional, gender and sectoral balance. The other 10 members will be co-opted later.
The Closing Plenary ended with a vote of thanks to the participants, chairs and speakers, the numerous institutions which helped, the artistes and musicians who performed, and not least, the 50-plus volunteers who looked after the practical arrangements: accommodation, food, transportation, registration, etc.
The volunteers included activists of Delhi Science Forum (which acted as the Convention coordination centre), a large number of students from Delhi University, and National Federation of Indian Women.
Springdales School, Lady Shri Ram College, Indian Social Institute and Instute of Social Sciences provided generous support.
The final item on the Convention agenda was the five hour-long Public Event at Mandi House, in which 12 different ensembles/troupes performed.
Among the highlights were street theatre (Nishant Natya Manch and Mazdoor Kisan Sangharsh Samiti), folk music (from Chhattisgarh), Zohra Sehgal?s recitation of Faiz Ahmed Faiz, qawwalis by the Wadali Brothers, Baul singing by Devdas and Kartik, and sufi/folk music by ?Parvaaz? and Madan Gopal Singh.-end-
ACTION PLAN
The Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace has undertaken to implement over the coming year ending 31 December 2001, the following programme:
1. Establish a central "clearing house" of information to help individuals and groups wanting to get necessary materials (videos, printed matter, experts, etc.) to generate popular awareness about nuclear weapons and lack of safety and transparency in the nuclear power sector.
2. Co-ordinate ongoing efforts towards regional and then national conventions of anti-nuclear weapon activists. Such regional meetings in the North, South, East, West and Central India to be convened over the next 6 months. There will be separate national conventions for trade unions, scientists, doctors, journalists, artists, lawyers, musicians etc.
3. Will press for institutionalization of "Nuclear Disarmament and Peace Week" from August 4-11 every year in as many schools and colleges as possible.
4. Will actively engage in dialogue at an official level with all political parties and mass organizations as well as with professional associations of all kinds, including industry, religious bodies etc.
5. Undertakes to support organizations in Jharkhand fighting the cause of victims of nuclear radiation in whatever way possible to highlight their plight including official dialogue with the new State government of Jharkhand.
6. Will support the efforts of concerned people in Rajasthan regarding secretive government nuclear-related activity including possible dumping of radioactive wastes in their areas.
7. Help to set-up within one year a national federation of radiation victims.
8. Liase with the Pakistan Peace Coalition (PPC) to bring out within a few months a report on joint Indo-Pakistan civil society initiatives that should be carried out to highlight the dangers posed by nuclearisation of South Asia.
9. Work with the PPC to identify 10 schools and 10 colleges in India and Pakistan respectively, which will be termed as 'sister schools' and 'sister colleges'.
10. Work fraternally with all other genuine nuclear disarmament groups and individuals globally as well as establishing links of mutual support with the Indian and South Asian Diaspora in Europe, North America and elsewhere.
INTERIM CHARTER FOR NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT AND PEACE
This National Convention for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace resolutely opposes nuclear weapons in India, South Asia and globally. Nuclear weapons are evil and immoral. They divert resources from real needs, promote insecurity, are genocidal, undermine democracy, endanger the environment and future generations. This Convention unequivocally condemns India's entry into the Nuclear Weapons Club in 1998 which represents a betrayal of its own past positions. This Convention resolves to bring together largest members of groups, organizations and individuals on a common platform with the following Agenda. To carry forward this Agenda we constitute ourselves into a National Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace.
India:
To halt and roll back India's nuclear weapons-related preparations and activity we demand the following measures to be implemented immediately:
No assembly of nuclear weapons, no induction and deployment of nuclear weapons. No acquisition and development of nuclear weapon-specific delivery systems.
Advanced research into nuclear weapons to be halted. No to explosive testing, sub-critical tests, or production or acquisition of weapons-usable fissile material tritium.
Complete transparency and independent monitoring of governmental activity in this regard and full public accountability on nuclear development and energy matters.
Proper compensation and reparation to all victims and their families for damages to health and local environment by activities related to all aspects (from uranium mining to reactor operation to waste disposal) of the nuclear fuel cycle. Priority must be given to remedial measures for all environmental damage.
Other Nuclear Capable and Nuclear Weapons States
We demand similar immediate measures of nuclear restraint and roll back from Pakistan. Given the tensions and potential for war in West Asia, we demand complete dismantling of Israel's nuclear weapons regime.
All the N-5 or Nuclear Weapons States (USA, Russia, Britain, France and China,) must immediately de-alert their nuclear weapons systems, make a pledge of No First Use and stop all research into advanced nuclear weapons. No to all efforts to construct an anti-ballistic missile system or missile shield.
We demand the rapid, systematic and continuous reduction by the N-5 of their nuclear weapons down to zero level through unilateral, bilateral and multillateral commitments and pacts.
We demand that the Indian Government go back to being among the pacesetters in matters of global nuclear disarmament.
We want a nuclear weapons free world and we support all genuine efforts in pursuit of this goal. In this effort we commit ourselves to the global nuclear disarmament movement and will strive to strengthen international solidarity in this endeavour.
Resolution on
Nuclear Missile Defence and Theatre Missile Defence of the USA
This National Convention for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace condemns unequivocally the proposal of the US Government to deploy so-called National Missile Defence (NMD) and Theatre Missile Defence (TMD) systems. While this programme may be currently on hold under the Clinton administration, it is more than likely that the next administration under the pressure of defence contractors will actually deploy Nuclear Missile Defence and Theatre Missile Defence systems.
The promotion of the Nuclear Missile Defence and the Theatre Missile Defence in the US political arena has all the hallmarks of the manner in which the US nuclear programme has been expanded, refined and sharpened. Fraudulent test (or improperly designed ones) are used to argue that the technology for this exists and can be developed and deployed. International treaties like the Anti Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty are sought to be circumvented or undermined or rejected. New bogus threats, like the danger of nuclear weapons in the hands of so-called 'rogue states' are created to justify the programmes. Objective opinion concurs that even against 'nuclear' terrorist threats, NMD and TMD make little sense.
The very discussion of the proposals for the NMD and the TMD in the US have evoked strong reactions from other Nuclear Weapon States (NWS) and any pursuit of these programmes will only harden the nuclear doctrine, strategies and postures of the other NWS. The pursuit of the NMD and the TMD will be a serious blow to the cause of global nuclear disarmament. This conference considers it a crucial task of the global anti-nuclear weapons movement to mobilize vigorously against these programmes. This conference calls on the Government of India to resolutely and forcefully record the opposition of the Indian people to the NMD and the TMD in all international fora.
13/11/2000
New Delhi
National Convention for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace,
C/o Delhi Science Forum, B- 1, Second Floor, LSC, J- Block, Saket, New Delhi 110017
Tel: 11-962-4323; 11-652-4324; Telefax: 11-686-2716
E-mail: natcon2000@fnmail.com