In all, 50 people have been accused of various charges, including attempt to murder, conspiracy, and rioting.
Policemen on duty at the construction site in Vizhinjam. (K B Jayachandran/ South First)
A day after the fishing community of Vizhinjam in Kerala forcibly blocked attempts by the corporate group Adani to restart the much-delayed construction work on the local port project, the police registered several cases against leaders of the agitation, including charges of attempt to murder.
In all, 50 people have been accused of various charges, including attempt to murder, conspiracy, and rioting.
The cases named Latin Catholic Arch-Diocese of Thiruvananthapuram‘s archbishop Thomas J Netto as the first accused and joint bishop J Kristhudas as the second accused. Fr Eugine Pereira, the church’s vicar general and the general convenor of the agitation, is the third accused.
The first 15 accused are clergy and church members, who have been charged with committing conspiracy.
The other 35 accused — all fish workers from the Vizhinjam coastal region south of Kerala capital Thiruvananthapuram protesting against the under-construction ₹7,500-crore international transhipment port project — have been charged with either attempt to murder or attempt to rioting, or both.
The move is being seen as a decision by the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government in Kerala to act tough on the agitators by forgoing the hitherto-pursued conciliatory approach
Protestors at the construction site in Vizhijam. (South First)
The Pinarayi Vijayan-led LDF government has also declared that it would not initiate any conciliatory talk with the agitators anymore, and would not hesitate to use force in the event of attempting to help resume the construction work.
The Home Department has directed all the police personnel who went on leave in the Thiruvananthapuram district to rejoin duty immediately and prepare to face any eventuality in the coming days. Additional battalions have been deployed in Vizhinjam and adjoining coastal areas.
Armed police personnel are conducting route marches now. As per available information, the government has approved a massive police action against the protestors if the agitations take any violent turn in the coming days when the Adani Group attempts to resume the construction works.
On Sunday, 27 November, the massive agitation against the port project by the local fish workers raising livelihood and environmental concerns, entered its 131st day.
Marking the occasion, pastoral letters were read out in all the churches under the Latin Catholic diocese on Sunday, saying there would not be any going back from the agitation till halting the construction works pending the completion of a scientific study by an independent team of scientists and coastal experts.
When contacted by South First, Pereira said the fish workers would not be frightened if the government slapped attempt-to-murder charges on them.
He accused the government of conspiring with the Adani Group and a set of local groups having a vested interest to ruthlessly suppress the agitation that is, in essence, a survival struggle.
“Some of our workers peacefully resisted when over 25 trucks carried construction materials to the site on Saturday morning to resume work. A set of local interest groups funded by Adani and promoted by the state government unleashed terror on the protestors to give the agitation a violent twist. Our priests tried to avert a major clash between the rival groups by dispiriting our protestors from resisting those who beat them. But now the government is raising charges of rioting, attempt to murder, and conspiracy against us. It is highly condemnable, and we will not return from the agitation without obtaining its declared goal,” said Pereira.
The under-construction Adani seaport at Vizhinjam. (South First)
In the meantime, the police have registered a single case against a set of Hindutva activists who held a counter-protest demanding early completion of the port project and denouncing the agitating fish workers as enemies of the country’s infrastructural growth.
The group attempted to attack the protestors who stalled the resumption of the works on Saturday, creating large-scale tension in the locality.
Sources say when trucks arrived with construction materials on Saturday, the fisherfolk blocked their entry to the construction site, resulting in a clash between them and the Hindutva groups favouring the port project.
The anti-port agitators destroyed the protest shed the pro-project Hindutva activists erected in the locality. Over 35 people were injured when both sides pelted stones.
The meagre police force present there remained neutral.
Eroding shoreline north of Vizhinjam (South First)
Claimed to be the country’s first container transhipment port with international standards, the Vizhinjam project aims to plug into the lucrative shipping trade between juggernaut manufacturers in the East and wealthy consumer markets in the West.
For the last three months, the construction works were stalled following the intense agitation by the fish workers of the region, primarily members of the Latin Catholic community.
The protestors say the under-construction project is causing large-scale sea erosion in the region, depriving them of their livelihood. Hundreds of houses and community spaces of the fish workers have been washed away in surging sea waters since the construction works began four years ago.
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