Kerala: Congress, LDF wary as Rahul Gandhi likely to meet anti-Adani port protesters on Monday

State Congress in a bind

The Church believes it would compel the Kerala unit of the Congress party to come out fully in support of the agitation, which has been on now for almost two months.

Latin Catholic Church leaders at a recent meeting with a cabinet subcommittee on Vizhinjam. (South First)

Though Congress has extended solidarity to the agitation by the fisherfolk, mostly comprising Latin Catholics, they are keeping mum on a crucial demand of the protestors: Halting all ongoing construction work at the project site till a new expert committee conducts a comprehensive, independent and scientific study on all aspects related to the project.

As far as the ruling LDF government and Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan are concerned, they have already made it very clear that they have no objections to the seven-point charter of demands of the Church and protestors — except for the clause that the construction be halted completely till the scientific study is done.

In the case of Rahul Gandhi, he is a known critic of corporate honchos like Adani and Ambani, who, according to him, are plundering the nation’s resources using their clout with the BJP-RSS in power at the Centre.

The Gandhi scion even used the launch of the Bharat Jodo Yatra in Kanyakumari to draw public attention to the fact that a few big businesses have taken over control of all the airports, coalfields, power distribution and telecom in the country, along with its green coastal areas and ports.

Protestors from the coastal communities at the Vizhinjam port construction site. (South First)

But Kerala’s Congress have not yet taken a clear stand on the agitators’ demand for a complete halt on the construction of the controversial project until the scientific study gets executed and suggestions are made.

A section of the Congress, including local MP Shashi Tharoor, supports the rights of those displaced by the project even as they are against a ban on construction, arguing that the project will bring significant businesses to the Kerala capital and ensure comprehensive development of trade and infrastructure.

Shashi Tharoor’s stand

Tharoor believes that the government must compensate the affected families and evolve a massive rehabilitation programme in consultation with the Church. He thinks that scrapping the whole project works, over 60 percent completed, would be suicidal.

However, the Church and protestors quote expert opinion that confirms their concerns over the project, which, they say, would further harm the precarious ecology and coast-reliant economy of southern Kerala. They say the port’s development and coastal protection cannot go hand-in-hand.

Congress sources told South First that the party leadership in the state is now torn between their vote bank among the fishing community — the Latin Catholic community’s votes are crucial for the party in the Lok Sabha constituencies of Thiruvananthapuram, Attingal, Kollam, Alappuzha, Mavelikara and Ernakulam — and support for the Adani-promoted port project, which was inked in 2015 by the UDF government in the state, then led by the Congress’s Oommen Chandy.

Church backed protestors are at the Vizhinjam port site. (South First)

As per the deal, Adani was to activate the seaport in 1,000 days, that is, by December 2019.

Oommen Chandy factor

If Rahul Gandhi takes a solid stand approving all the concerns raised by the protestors, it will become a severe setback not just to party veteran Chandy but also the faction he leads, which dominates the state unit.

Rahul’s decision will also be crucial for Tharoor, who has preferred a middle path between the Adani port and the concerns of the coastal community who voted him to the Lok Sabha thrice. This time, the protestors have warned Tharoor against trumpeting the Adani cause in Vizhinjam.

Though the protestors are more critical of the BJP at the Centre and CPI(M) at the state for protecting Adani’s interests in Vizhinjam, there is visible disenchantment among them with Congress as well.

Protest by Latin Catholic priests in Thiruvananthapuram against Vizhinjam port. (South First)

When Kerala’s Opposition leader VD Satheesan visited the protest site last week, he was greeted with disturbing questions about the Congress party’s stand on the project’s future.

Ironically, when it was in Opposition, the CPI(M) had been highly critical of the terms and conditions of the Build-Operate-Transfer project, but since coming to power in 2016, it has been aggressively backing it, saying it would facilitate huge infrastructure and commercial development.

Though the protest is against the safety and viability of the Adani project, many demands of the coastal community, like a proper rehabilitation plan, are pending with the state government.

However, despite its trenchant criticism the LDF government on a host of recent issues, the Congress has been unable to take on Vijayan over the Vizhinjam protests, given that it was its government that rolled out the red carpet for Adani.

So what Rahul Gandhi says after the meeting will be critical for several people.

While the fisherfolk backed Tharoor and the Congress in the 2019 Lok Sabha election, they switched loyalty to the LDF in the 2021 Assembly elections, when the Left front fielded Antony Raju, a Latin Catholic, who is now a minister.

Now Raju is earning the community’s wrath for not protecting its interests.