Fissures in anti-Sterlite movement come to fore

Thoothukudi: Factionalism among the anti-sterlite leaders came to the fore at a protest in front of the district collector’s office on Monday, as a section led by Krishnamoorthy staged a road blockade in the Thoothukudi-Tirunelveli national highway, while the other group led by Prof Fathima Babu abstained from the road blockade and participated in a peace talk with the collector at his office. 

Notwithstanding their singular demand that the private copper smelter plant should be shut, Krishnamoorthy and Fathima Babu has difference since the beginning of the mass struggle. During the March 24 protest, when around 20,000 people gathered against Sterlite, Fathima Babu was asked to speak last, despite she being one of the key persons in the anti-Sterlite protest for long since the company was launched in 1996. Moreover, the youth supporters of Krishnamoorthy and of the ‘Naam Tamizhar Katchi (NTK)’ switched off the digital screens kept behind the stage for the audience to watch the event.

On Monday the difference was very conspicuous as the Fathima Babu-led protesters, mainly from the villages of Silverpuram, Balaiahpuram, Subramaniyapuram and Meelavittan stayed inside the collectorate premises, while the other faction from the villages of Kumarediyapuram and Madathur along with a group of local lawyers were staging a road blockade, just 500-m away on the national highway. 

Moreover despite the protest from the section protesting outside on the road, Fathima Babu agreed for a peace talk with the district collector, N Venkatesh and superintendent of police, Mahendran. 

As the result of the peace talk with Fathima Babu, the district collector came down from his office to heed the grievances of the affected people. 

Following this gesture by the district collector, one section of the people left the protest venue satisfied and returned to their respective villages. But the Krishnamoorthy-led faction demanded the district collector to come to the venue of the road blockade to speak with them, to which the  collector initially did not respond. This prompted Krishnamoorthy and his supporters to continue their protest. 

As they remained adamant, the collector, Dr Venkatesh, eventually came down at around 2.30 pm and repeated what he had assured the first group earlier in the day. It is to be noted here that another faction headed by a Tamil nationalist, Tamilmanthan, plans to hold a separate conference on Friday on the Sterlite issue.