Will Aranmula airport plan hit an air pocket?

Now that the BJP is going to be in the saddle at the Centre, the country’s first greenfield private international airport at Aranmula faces huge political barriers as the BJP’s Kerala unit opposes it on the ground that the airport will violate the sanctity of the famous Parthasarathy Temple.

“We are totally against the airport,” BJP State general secretary AN Radhakrishnan told Business Line on Wednesday, the day the Aranmula Airport Protest Committee crossed 100 days of its campaign against the airport being built by the Chennai-based KGS Group at an estimated cost of ₹2,000 crore. Radhakrishnan hinted that the party would press the Narendra Modi Government to stop the project in its tracks.

Campaign issue The Aranmula airport, which will come up close to the Parthasarathy Temple and which is located around 100 km equidistant from Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi, was a key campaign issue for the BJP in the Pathanamthitta Lok Sabha constituency. The substantial number of votes BJP candidate MT Ramesh secured in the Aranmula segment of the constituency is believed to be because of the party’s opposition to the airport.

The BJP, pandering to the sentiments of the faithful, had played up the fear that the airport would violate the sanctity of the Parthasarathy Temple, where a large number of pilgrims on the way to Sabarimala stop over to offer prayers. It was argued that the navigation gear of the proposed airport would rise above the temple structures and would bring in ill omen. Ramesh had, during the campaign, promised that if the BJP came to power, the airport project would be scrapped.

Unlikely partners Interestingly, both the BJP and the CPI(M), arch political rivals, had come on a common platform to oppose the project. The CPI(M), which had turned vociferously anti-airport during the electioneering, received flak for its association with the BJP and the Sangh Parivar which had a religious agenda on the airport issue.

The party argued that its opposition was based on environmental concern and the fact that the airport would cause damage to the cultural heritage of the Aranmula town.

The airport project, supported by the Oommen Chandy Government, has also been opposed by a section within the ruling Congress-led United Democratic Front. In a curious political turn, an AICC secretary, Philippose Thomas, who was the president of the Pathanamthitta District Congress Committee, who had opposed the project, resigned and fought Lok Sabha election as an LDF-Independent candidate in Pathanamthitta. Thomas was defeated by the UDF’s Anto Antony.

5th ariport The Aranmula airport, if built, would be the fifth international airport in Kerala after Kochi, Thirivananthapuram, Kozhikode and Kannur. Environmental groups have all along opposed the airport.

It remains to be seen whether the Modi Government, whose economic policy is expected to be pro-capital, will succumb to the pressures of the party’s State unit which has gained political capital out of its opposition to the airport?

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