Though the poster boy of the agitation, S P Udayakumar, does not belong to the fisherman community and hails from Nagercoil, Balaprajathipathi Adigalar, the head priest of the Ayyavazhi cult in Kanyakumari district, feels that the church leaders have appropriated the protests. What was once a common struggle by the people of Tirunelveli, Thoothukudi and Kanyakumari districts has now become an exclusive war fought by the people of the coastal areas, leaving out other community leaders, feels Adigalar, saying that in the event of an accident in the proposed nuclear plant, the inland people would be the most affected. “The fishermen at least can escape through the sea,” he argues.