A family can go to any extent to save their sick family members. India has been arduously battling with highly contagious Covid-19 pandemic, after its second wave hit Indians hard. Every institution in India is working on war footing to win the battle. But, Actor and Makkal Needhi Maiam founder and leader, Kamal Hassan wants Covid-19 positive patients to die a miserable death gasping for Medical Oxygen as he doesn’t want Vedanta’s Sterlite in Tamil Nadu to reopen to produce medicinal oxygen.
Nation is gasping for Medical Oxygen as Covid-19 positive cases swept across the country, due to regional mutant variants in it. Even if doctors are toiling hard amid high risks, Covid-19 patients are dying without Medical Oxygen. How to save Covid-19 patients by administering medicinal oxygen, when there is a huge gap between supply and demand of it? There is a Chief Minister like Naveen Patnaik, who created a special cell, coordinated by a senior IPS officer for continuous supply of oxygen to needy states. There is a Chief Minister like Arvind Kejriwal, who promotes himself via advertisement on news channels, instead of arranging medicinal oxygen at jam packed hospitals in Delhi.
Unfortunately, India also has self-proclaimed climate activist and actor Kamal Hassan, who doesn’t want medicinal oxygen to be produced at Vedanta’s Sterlite copper plant at Thoothukudi in Tamil Nadu, when Covid-19 patients are dying of gasping for medicinal oxygen. In other words, Kamal Hassan wants Covid-19 patients to die of gasping for Medical Oxygen shortage.
A section of Covid-19 positive cases in India have lung tissues damaged enough by the virus to require external oxygen support. There has been an unprecedented rise in such cases since March this year. Witnessing Acute shortage of Liquid Medical Oxygen (LMO) causing death, distress and despair, Tamil Nadu government took an urgent decision to reopen Sterlite Copper Smelter Plant at Thoothukudi for a period of four months to produce medical oxygen.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami convened an all-party meeting inviting the AIADMK, the DMK, the BJP, the Congress, the PMK, the DMDK and the Left parties, and took unanimous decision to reopen Sterlite. Palaniswami said, “everyone was responsible to save the lives of people.” Palaniswami stressed that Sterlite at Thoothukudi would be allowed to reopen only to manufacture oxygen, that too, for a period of four months. He further stressed that Vedanta would not be permitted to open or operate other plants that would be used for copper production, although the four month periods might be extended if the requirement of oxygen rises further.
Despite assurance from Chief Minister, Edappadi K Palaniswami Kamal Hassan preferred to play his brand of politics at dead bodies of Covid-19 victims, when he condemned Tamil Nadu government decision to reopen Vedanta’s Sterlite Copper Plant only to manufacture oxygen. He asked, “Are there no other industries in Tamil Nadu that can produce oxygen? Why reopen Sterlite?” However, Kamal Hassan didn’t name any industry, which can produce oxygen as much as Sterlite in Thoothukudi. Such hollow approach to stop production of oxygen tells about Kamal Hassan that piled up dead bodies of Covid-19 victims do not matter to him. He doesn’t mind more Covid-19 patient to die until his brand of politics thrives and rises. MNM leader displayed his most insensitive part, when he threatened to trigger a long protest against reopening of oxygen producing Sterlite during a pandemic.
It is to be recalled Vedanta’s Sterlite Copper Plant based at Thoothukudi was the largest copper smelter plant in India. The plant started from 1998, but stopped operating from March 2018 and eventually shut down by Tamil Nadu Government on 28 May 2018, following protest from local residents, politicians, and climate activists for polluting their environment and causing health problems.
However, on Tuesday, the Supreme Court permitted Vedanta to produce oxygen only in its Thoothukudi unit, after Vedanta Limited had moved the Apex Court requesting an emergency hearing that it could produce 1000 tons of oxygen if the plant was allowed to reopen. The Apex Court said that Tamil Nadu Government decided to let Vedanta operate the plant, which would produce up to 200 MT of liquid oxygen within 10 days. The Supreme Court noted, “the nation must stand together, as the nation is facing a national crisis.
But, Kamal Hassan chose to stand against the nation at a time of national crisis mocking the dead bodies of pandemic victims.
People of India need to remember there were two key players behind the protest against Vedanta’s Sterlite at Thoothukudi. One was Fatima Babu, a local climate activist and the other was Mohan C Lazarus, owner of a television channel. While Vedanta was said to be flouting few environmental guidelines, Lazarus, a fundamentalist Christian evangelist with political clout hijacked the protest uniting the combination of Dravidianist-Tamil separatist and Christian evangelical forces to use it as a Breaking India agenda.
Isn’t Kamal Hassan blatantly supporting the agenda of Breaking India Forces at the time of pandemic?
Kamala Hassan is not a nationalist and he belongs to Dravidian group which work against unity of the country.
Why not arrested under contempt of court?