The recent Sterlite protests in Tamil Nadu that eventually led to the closure of the factory should serve as a warning sign of what is to come for all Hindus in India, including the economic, moderate and centre-right wingers of the country. Through continuous planned and organized protests, anti-development forces have successfully caused the closure of a major factory in the state. Though a significant part of the blame for the closure goes to the poor handling of the crisis by the government, the root cause behind the protests and eventual closure of the plant should not be ignored. The root cause of the problem was the Church and its countless coolies, ably funded by foreign money, which provided massive monetary incentives for protesters in the region.
These types of protests against development and factories are becoming increasingly common in the southern part of Tamil Nadu, be it the anti-Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant protests, the anti-Colachel port development project, or the now famous Sterlite protests. One should note that this is not so widespread in the northern, eastern or western parts of Tamil Nadu. The reason for the success of these protests is the significant presence of the Church and Christianity in the south. In fact, Kanyakumari district is almost 45% Christian as against the state average Christian population of 10%.
Christians in Tamil Nadu have a presence of more than two and a half percent in all districts except Krishnagiri, Dharmapuri, Salem, Namakkal, Karur and Perambalur. In the rest of the state, Christians have a non-negligible presence everywhere.
So why does the Church oppose all such development projects?
The primary reason the Church, and hence its coolies like Sebastian Simon or Thirumurugan Gandhi, oppose such development projects is because these projects create lakhs of jobs for the local population and help improve livelihood prospects, thus providing a strong bulwark against conversions by these soul vultures, who primarily target the weakest sections of society with rice and money. Ever since the economic liberalization of the country in 1991 and widespread economic growth, the rate of conversions to Christianity has fallen sharply, largely thanks to the resurgent middle class. Nowadays, the only people these soul vultures are able to target are those at death’s door in hospitals and ultra-poor people who are still to receive the benefits of economic liberalization.
For instance, the Sterlite plant in Tuticorin is providing direct and indirect employment to over 35,000 people — read 35,000 families, i.e. 1.5–2 lakh people — in the area. Now these 2 lakh people are, for all intents and purposes, immune to any kind of soul preying by the Church. Expansion of the factory would have further dented conversion efforts as it would have benefited 2 lakh additional people in the region. This is the reason why the Church is so opposed to any kind of development in the region. In fact, according to anecdotal evidence, the “activists” on the site were paid a daily wage of ₹400 per head for protesting against the factory by the organizers of the protests.
The Bogus Environment Argument
For all the claims of environmental damage by the protesters, they are yet to submit a single research paper supporting their claims to the court. The only reason the government has even closed the factory now is because of political pressure to act on it. In fact, the Sterlite factory in Tuticorin had even obtained clearance from the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board for its operations. Of course, there were some accidental leakages of pollutants in nearby areas, but they had been quickly corrected then and there. Even if the standards imposed by TNPCB were not good enough for the “paid activists”, the answer would have been to improve the controls and not shut down the whole plant given the large number of dependants on this project. But this is exactly what the soul vultures wanted: stop economic development and harvest more souls in poverty-stricken neighbourhoods.
One must not forget that there are several worse-polluting factories and establishments in other parts of the state, be it the dyeing factories of Tiruppur, coal mines in Neyveli, or slaughterhouses of Vellore. These protests will not reach Tiruppur as it is dominated by Hindus, who will never allow these charlatans to threaten their livelihood; nor will they reach Vellore as it is run by Muslims, who will slaughter them before they can squeak about it. They will not protest against Neyveli either as it benefits lakhs of government workers who will collectively block all of Tamil Nadu by killing electricity generation.
Cautionary Tale for the Centre Right, Economic Right, Moderate Right and Libertards
What happened in Sterlite is a cautionary tale for the entire moderate right wing of the country. Even the economic development of the country, which is supposedly the only thing they think matters, is dependent on favourable demographics. When demography is even slightly hostile, economic development also takes a hit due to religious politics, as witnessed by the closure of Sterlite. The example set by Sterlite will be closely followed in other development projects also. Recently, Tamil Nadu lost a ₹6,000 crore factory construction project to Andhra Pradesh for precisely this reason, and Tamil Nadu, once a haven for business — which was the reason it became the third-richest state in India — is slowly turning into another West Bengal, all for the needs of soul vultures to find their prey. This is only the beginning of a much more sinister plot regarding the development and prosperity of the nation, and the moderate, economic and centre right wing would do well to read the signs on the wall carefully.
Author: The author is a native of South Tamil Nadu and shared this post with us.
Image source: https://www.theweek.in/news/india/2018/04/01/kamal-haasan-in-thoothukudi-in-support-of-anti-sterlite-protests.html