Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has taken on what he called ‘disruptive forces’ leading protests at the site of the international seaport and container transshipment terminal being developed by the Adani Vizhinjam Port Pvt Ltd, and asserted that the ₹7,500-crore will materialise, come what may. 

This signalled a hardening of the resolve on the part of the State government after other members of the Cabinet had earlier expressed apprehensions of the’ external forces’ behind the spate of protests, which have been smouldering over a period of the last three or four months and had stalled project. 

Will damage credibility 

Any rethink on the project as the protestors have demanded, will badly damage the credibility of the State, he said while addressing a meeting in Thiruvananthapuram on Thursday evening. Earlier in Thrissur, he had gone hammer and tongs against the ‘misguided elements’ spearheading the protests. 

“We will not care the nature of the protests, least of all the garb of attire they manifest in,” he said in a veiled reference to activists of the church under the Latin Archdiocese of Thiruvananthapuram. A 3,000-strong crowd allegedly commandeered by the church had engaged in arson and violence on Sunday night and laid a siege to the Vizhinjam police station and threatened to set it on fire demanding release of some detainees. 

Aims to thwart development 

An uneasy calm has prevailed around the project area since then punctuated only a rally of some 700 activists of The Hindu Munnani, demanding resumption of work on the project. The procession was taken out on Wednesday in defiance of a ban declared by the police in the sensitive coastal belt. 

Referring to the fishermen protest, the Chief Minister said this is not directed against the government but aimed to thwart the progress and unity of the State. “Don’t entertain any thought that the government can be threatened,” he said without naming any organisation/individual. 

He said that if a government were to abandon a project merely because it was commenced by its predecessor, prospective investors would not take kindly to it. “We have addressed six out of the seven demands raised by fishermen, but their demand to suspend the mega project cannot be accepted,’’ he said. 

Peace and harmony at stake

 

Vijayan also came down heavily on the remark of the convenor of the action committee of the protestors and a priest himself, in which he said there is a terrorist in the name of Fisheries Minister V Abdurahiman. “How can a minister be called a traitor judging by his name? Where we are heading to? This is ample evidence that they want to destroy the peace and harmony of the state.’’ 

The police had on Wednesday registered a case against the priest, though he had earlier tendered an apology. On Thursday, the minister refused to entertain the apology. The police have also proceeded to register five cases naming the Archbishop and his deputy as main perpetrators of the violence. 

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