Two parties that are at loggerheads ideologically in Kerala – the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Bharatiya Janata Party – came together on Wednesday, November 2, to shower blessings on a protest march against the ongoing agitation against the Adani Port’s International Deepwater Multipurpose Seaport project in Vizhinjam led by the Latin Catholic Church.
The long march was organised by a local action council called Pradeshika Janakeeya Koottayma and had participation by several Hindu community organisations including the Nair Service Society (NSS), Pulayar Mahasabha, Thandan Mahasabha and Vishwakarma Sabha among others. A Congress ward councillor from Mullur, from where the march was taken out, and a local leader of the Indian National League (INL) were also part of the protest, according to reports. Ahammad Devarkovil, the Minister of Ports in Kerala, is the General Secretary of INL.
The Long March covered a distance of nearly 15 km from Mullur, where the port being constructed by Adani Vizhinjam Port Private Ltd (AVPPL) is coming up, to the Secretariat in Thiruvananthapuram. “The main demands of the protestors include implementation of the High Court order regarding the construction of Vizhinjam port and completion of the project as soon as possible,” said Venganoor Gopakumar, general convener of Pradeshika Janakeeya Koottayma. Gopakumar is also the vice president of BJP's Kisan Morcha and had organised similar protests against the church-led agitation.
CPI(M) district secretary Anavoor Nagappan, who took part in the protest, said that the party will provide support to the pro-Vizhinjam people’s collective. He told The Hindu: “The protesters are being controlled by a group which has ulterior motives. They have vested interests and that is why they are continuing with the agitation even after the government has agreed to their demands.” He had also said that the state had provided the rent to rehabilitate 134 persons so far and will continue to provide it until they are fully rehabilitated.
BJP district president VV Rajesh, who was also present in the march, said that both the Union and state governments have been trying to complete the construction work and called anti-Vizhinjam protests an attempt to sabotage the government’s plan. He also said that the party will provide full support to the project.
Speaking to TNM, Rajesh said, “Neither BJP nor CPI(M) organised the protest. There are local leaders of all parties in the local action council. If the protest had been organised by either of us, we wouldn't have participated in it. We just expressed our views during the march, that the work should be expedited as it is the duty of the state government to do so.”
CPI(M) leaders too said the event was not organised by them or the BJP and that they had merely participated in it. "Even if we knew that BJP is participating in it beforehand, we would have participated in it because it was not organised by BJP. Representatives of all political parties and community organisations were part of the action council, formed by the local residents. And the protest was headed by a Congress councillor," Anavoor Nagappan said.
While the Kerala government agreed to some of the demands of the anti-Vizhinjam protestors, it refused to stop the construction work. The Kerala High Court also directed that no protest should affect the construction work. The court also directed the Kerala government to provide protection to workers at Vizhinjam.
The Vizhinjam project is opposed by the fisherfolk community which, under the leadership of the Catholic Archdiocese of Trivandrum, are demanding, among other things, proper environmental impact studies, rehabilitation of families who lost their homes to coastal erosion and repairing coastal damage.
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