The FIR drawn up by the Vizhinjam police shows Latin Archbishop Fr Thomas J Netto himself as the first accused. The Auxiliary Bishop, Fr Christudas Rajappan, is the second accused and the convenor of the agitation Fr Eugene Pereira is the third.
Do you know - Vizhinjam port is super critical for India?
Vizhinjam port was selected as the most cost-effective choice for a trans-shipment terminal in India
• 20-meter natural depth for big ships.
• Requires minimum dredging due to natural sea currents.
• Is on the southern tip of India, and can act as a midpoint of east & west trade.
In India it takes 30 years, yes 30 years, for a development project of national significance to take shape, after going through all the hurdles created by various vested interests.
The foundation stone of the Rs 7,525 crore port, being built under a Public Private Partnership (PPP) model with Adani Ports Private Limited at Vizhinjam near Thiruvananthapuram, was finally laid by then Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy in December 2015. It has since missed its completion deadline.
The port is to have 30 berths, and will be able to handle giant “megamax” container ships. The Adani Group has said the ultramodern port, located close to major international shipping routes, will boost India’s economy. Its location is also of strategic importance, the project’s supporters have claimed. The port is expected to compete with Colombo, Singapore, and Dubai for a share of trans-shipment traffic.
What is a transshipment terminal?
Goods and containers are shipped to an intermediate destination, and then they go to the final destination. These terminals often combine small shipments into larger shipments or divide large loads into smaller ones.
Currently, India does not have a trans-shipment port.
85% of India’s cargo is handled at below ports, and India pays a fee to these countries for every shipment.
• Colombo SriLanka (China owned)
• Singapore
• Klang Malaysia
• Dubai
How will a trans-shipment hub benefit India?
Availability of a 20m contour within one nautical mile from the coast;
Minimal littoral drift along the coast
Forex savings
Foreign direct investment
Increased economic activity at other Indian Ports
Development of logistics infrastructure & value-added services
Proximity to international shipping routes.
Warehousing
Crew change facility
Ship repair, etc
Links to national/regional Highways,
Rail network
While the fishermen’s protests are being supported by the Latin Catholic Church, a local people’s action committee is demanding speedy completion of the project. This committee has the backing of various Hindu community outfits like the Nair Service Society, Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam, as well as the Vaikunda Swami Dharma Pracharana, which has a considerable presence among the Nadar community, in southern Kerala. Usual political opponents BJP and CPI(M) have made common cause over the port project, criticising the protesters.
This is not the first time that development projects have been stalled by a foreign hand.
In 2011, similar protests were fuelled by USA & Scandinavian NGOs connected to church against the ₹14,000 crore Kudankulam Nuclear plant, which India was building with help from Russia.
Sterlite Copper plant in Tamil Nadu’s Thoothukudi district became a victim of foreign-funded protests too and was forced to shut down in May 2018. The Sterlite plant met 40 percent of India's copper demand, and now copper is imported from China.
There are countless examples where foreign-funded NGOs have fuelled protests against developmental projects in India.
They use the church and environmental NGOs to funnel funds and keep the agitation simmering. Environmental NGOs will suddenly appear giving their ‘expert’ opinions every day on various local TV channels about how everything will destroy the environment and kill all the people.
There are regional parties like DMK who back these ‘Poralis’ and NGOs for their own benefit. The DMK opposed the 8 Lane Salem Chennai expressway which would cut the travel distance by over 60kms and bring down travel time by half, when they were in opposition. Now, after coming to power, they are OK with it, mostly because they can make money out of it. Another crucial project cutting down interstate freight traffic was stalled in the process for 5 years.
Ironically, the communists who are known to oppose every developmental project in the country are now compelled to support the Vizhinjam International Seaport project since they are the ruling party in Kerala. They issued a statement in support of the project blaming agitators all over the country!
"There were severe objections to various development projects like the Kudankulam power project, the development of national highways and the laying of the GAIL pipeline. But with strong and determined actions the government had implemented all these projects," the statement said.
It said the government had done all it could to allay the concerns of the local people. "But certain vested interests are standing in the way," the CPM Secretariat said.
The church is an agent used by foreign powers to stall India’s growth and to ensure that India remains a ‘developing country’ forever, ensuring their superiority and also to ensure that Indians look up to them. It is about time SECULAR Hindus understood this loud and clear. They have successfully ensured that Indians became self-loathing of their own culture, languages & heritage.
2000 years back, King Karikala Cholan of the Chola dynasty had the foresight to build a dam to divert the waters of the Kaveri across the fertile delta region for irrigation via canals.
The Dam is almost ½ a Km long and is still in excellent condition. The area irrigated by the dam when it was built was 69,000 acres. Early in the 20th century, the irrigated area had gone up to a million acres.
In an analysis of how the Dam remained in continuous operation till now, it was concluded that “the old anicuts worked so well because they sophisticatedly reshaped water currents and sedimentation processes, rather than trying to control all natural elements by force”
Of course, Karikala Cholan did not have to deal with the church or some of the current day politicians and ‘Poralis’ and even if he had to, he would have dealt with them the way they should be dealt with.
