Was scrapping the Parandur airport project the right call for Chennai, or could the Vijay government’s decision hurt Tamil Nadu’s industrial ambitions?
Listen and follow on YouTube
Listen and follow on Apple
Listen and follow on Spotify
In this week's South Central, hosts Dhanya Rajendran and Pooja Prasanna discuss the Tamil Nadu government’s decision to scrap the Parandur airport project and the growing debate over India’s new anti-reservation movement.
They are joined by aviation safety consultant Captain Mohan Ranganathan and K E Raghunathan, national chairman of the Association of Indian Entrepreneurs, to discuss Chennai’s airport plans and what the cancellation could mean for the city’s environment, connectivity and industrial growth.
Captain Mohan Ranganathan says that the Parandur site posed serious flood and aviation safety concerns. He says filling around 4,000 acres with concrete could leave floodwaters with nowhere to drain.
He recalls writing in 2008, when discussions first began, that "if any obstacle or obstruction is put across the river, any flooding will affect areas south, southeast and west of that”.
He says that the 2015 flood was a result of this.
He also flags that the soil isn't suited for a runway, and that concretising 4,000 acres would leave floodwaters nowhere to go, warning that building the airport could mean "you can forget about Chennai existing, it is going to be completely wiped out."
He argues that Chennai’s existing airport could instead be made more efficient through better planning, redesign and coordination.
Raghunathan counters that Chennai has needed an additional airport for 16 years, for industrial cargo and passenger traffic, noting the current airport's limited international options and slow taxi exit times. He adds that acquiring land elsewhere would be costly and time-consuming, and would result in a lot of lost industrial revenue.
The discussion also examines the concerns of farmers and residents who could be displaced by large infrastructure projects, with the panel debating whether governments are adequately consulting all stakeholders before taking major decisions.
In the second part of the episode, the hosts discuss the recent anti-reservation movement and what it reveals about caste, merit, social media and contemporary right-wing politics.
They are joined by Professor Ravikant Kisana, who examines how the movement has evolved from an anti-reservation campaign into a broader “quota reforms” platform.
Ravikant argues the protests resemble "a fan meet" more than genuine activism, closer to Comic-Con, driven by opportunistic right-wing figures chasing social media clout amid enduring "savarna anxiety" over reservation.
“I don't think of it as a protest. Very honestly, this is not a protest. It's more like a fan meet and a political cosplay,” he says.
He says these online networks have been building an audience around anti-reservation arguments for years, and that the current movement has brought many of them together.
The discussion also looks at the hostility directed towards Dalits and other marginalised communities during the movement, and whether dismissing these voices as fringe online influencers risks overlooking a potentially larger political trend.
Tune in to the full episode here.
Audio timecodes:
00:00:00 - Introduction
00:02:27 - Headlines
00:09:12 - Scrapping of Parandur Airport project
00:45:09 - Anti-reservation movement
01:19:53 - Recommendations
References
Karnataka SIR draft rolls are out: What voters need to do next
Delhi roadblock for Revanth’s US trip| Powertrip #162
Recommendations:
Dhanya Rajendran
The Good Reporter: A Memoir of Journalism in the 21st Century
Pooja Prasanna
Meet the Savarnas: Indian Millennials Whose Mediocrity Broke Everything
Captain Mohan Ranganathan
To Kill A Mockingbird: 60th Anniversary Edition
K E Raghunathan
Prof. Ravikant Kisana
Despite the State: Why India Lets Its People Down and How They Cope
Get special 6-month subscription of TNM-NL at Rs 1947: https://pages.razorpay.com/tnm-1947?utm_source=sc&utm_medium=sc1947link&utm_campaign=sc
Check out the recommendations and references from this episode.
Check out the list of headlines discussed in South Central
Support South Central: https://pages.razorpay.com/south-central
Send your thoughts, suggestions, and criticism as well.
Contribute to our reporting fund. Click here.
To check out our other shows, Click here
To not miss any updates, join TNM's WhatsApp Channel! Click here
You can also let us know what you think by filling out our quick feedback form. Your suggestions help shape future episodes of South Central.
To not miss any updates, join TNM's WhatsApp Channel! Click here
Producer - Akshay Lal, Editor - Jaseem Ali, Camera - Ajay R, Social Media - Anakha C J