Kerala govt accused of giving political colour to movement against rail project

As protests against the Kerala semi-high speed rail project mount, the ruling CPM-led Left Democratic Front has triggered a fresh campaign giving communal and political colour to the protests, which is alleged to be part of a political strategy to suppress the apolitical movement against the project.

CPM top leaders are alleging a political ploy to trigger a 'Nandigram' model protest in Kerala even as it was being widely accused of maintaining a double standard by objecting the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project and backing the Kerala rail project.

The action council against the rail project is being quite vigilant against political parties hijacking the movement of the affected people.

Ever since the protests against the proposed rail project started aggravating, the ruling front leaders, especially those in the CPM, were claiming that the protests were politically motivated. Even when ordinary people staged stiff resistance and doused themselves in kerosene against demarcation of land for the project, the CPM leaders stuck to the stand.

Now top leaders including Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and CPM state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan are alleging a nexus of Congress-BJP-Indian Union Muslim League and other communal outfits against the government. Balakrishnan even alleged that a 'Nandigram' model stir of West Bengal was being planned by the opposition parties in Kerala.

The Anti K-Rail Action Council leaders pointed out that the council was active over the last two years collecting data regarding the project and approaching the Green Tribunal and the Kerala High Court against it. The main stream political parties like the Congress-led United Democratic Front and the BJP offered support to it only recently, it said.

State general convenor of the action council S Rajeevan told DH that the present attempts by the government to give political colour to the stir was anticipated as "the government often adopt such strategies to curb mass movements". The action council has workers, local leaders and fellow-travelers of all political parties, but not with their political tag, but with the single-point agenda of opposing the Silver Line project considering its massive adverse impacts on the ecology, he said.

He also said that the main stream opposition parties were initially reluctant to join the protest owing to fear of being labeled as anti-development. But they got convinced of the ill-effects of the project only after the action council carried out massive awareness campaigns, he added.

As per the DPR of the project, of the 1226.45 hectare land required for the project, 1074.19 hectare will have to be acquired from private parties.