The Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) skipped the inaugural trial run of the first container ship at Adani Group's Vizhinjam International Sea Port in Thiruvananthapuram on Friday, July 12.
Congress leader and Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor expressed his protest by not participating in the event, claiming that the government failed to rehabilitate and compensate hundreds of seafaring fisher families displaced by the international port.
Though Thomas J Netto, the Metropolitan Archbishop of the Latin Catholic Archdiocese of Trivandrum, was invited for the inauguration, he too abstained from it. The Latin Catholic church was at the forefront of the protest against the port citing that the project could severely affect the livelihood of the fishermen and also have an adverse impact on ecology.
Vizhinjam Port, India's first trans-shipment port, received its first mothership on June 11. MV San Fernando, a vessel of the world’s second-largest shipping company Maersk, arrived at the port as part of a trial run with over 2,000 containers. The sea port is situated 16 km south of Thiruvananthapuram district and the port is merely a 10 nautical mile diversion from the international east-west shipping route.
Amid these protests, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan formally welcomed the ship, with the presence of Union Minister for Ports, Shipping and Waterways Sarbananda Sonowal as the chief guest. Several other politicians including the Union and State ministers attended the function.
During the inaugural day, the state also witnessed the dispute between the UDF and the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) over the ownership of the project. In 2015, the foundation stone for the project was laid by the UDF government under Oomman Chandy. The Congress party accuses the present LDF government of taking credit for the development of the port.
The Congress party also expressed displeasure over the decision of the government to exclude the Opposition leader from the inaugural event.
While talking to the media, Opposition leader VD Satheesan credited former Chief Minister late Oommen Chandy for the success of the Vizhinjam project. “ We are proud of this project because it is UDF’s baby. It was Oommanchandy who made it a reality” Satheesan said. Satheesan also shared an old speech by Oomman Chandy, who spoke about the project and wrote on his Facebook, “Pinarayi Vijayan once said that Vizhinjam is a 6000 crore real-estate scam and now he is taking the credit of the project. The CPI(M)’s mouthpiece Deshabhimani once wrote this as a robbery.”
