Politics
Fishermen led by Church representatives laying siege to under construction Vizhinjam port in Kerala (PTI)
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPIM) have come together to back the Vizhinjam counter-protest that is being held in support of the port project.
The counter-protest is being held by a bunch of local outfits and is backed by both the parties as they believe that the coming of the Vizhinjam port will usher in prosperity and development.
District Secretaries of the CPI(M) Anavoor Nagappan and the BJP, VV Rajesh addressed a long march to the State Secretariat.
There have been a number of orders from the Kerala High Court directing the protestors to evacuate the site and asking the state government to provide police protection so that the project can go on.
CPI(M) leaders said that the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government is afraid to take action against the protestors because they fear it could cause riots and trouble the law-and-order situation of the state.
The Adani Group, which had bagged the project had moved a contempt petition against the Kerala government for not implementing the High Court orders. It had also written to the Kerala government to recover the 100-crore loss caused by the protest from the Latin Archdiocese.