BJP vows to ‘unbuild’ Aranmula airport

Building bridges, laying roads and attracting industries are the promises politicians offer during election time.

But in Kerala’s Pathanamthitta Lok Sabha constituency, home to the famous Aranmula Parthasarathy temple, the BJP promises to ‘unbuild’ an airport.

Chennai-based KGS Group is building the country’s first greenfield private international airport at a cost of around ₹2,000 crore at Aranmula, located approximately 100 km equidistant from Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram.

The town is a major stopover for pilgrims heading for Sabarimala. It is also famous for the ‘Uthrattathi’ row-boat race associated with the Parthasarathy Temple, and the hand-crafted Aranmula metal mirror.

“If the BJP comes to power, we will get the airport project scrapped,” MT Ramesh, the BJP’s State vice-president and candidate for Pathanamthitta, told Business Line .

“The airport will violate the sanctity of the Parthasarathy Temple, hurt the faith of the local community and damage the culture and heritage of Aranmula.”

The airport project, which received the go-ahead from the VS Achuthanandan government in 2009 and the Central Government in 2012, has faced stiff opposition from environmental groups, as rice fields make up two-thirds of the 500-acre land required. The Kerala State Biodiversity Board has serious concerns about the possible environmental damage and the Central Green Tribunal had in April 2013 temporarily stayed construction activities. The Oommen Chandy-headed UDF government, however, supported the project. But the project became a question of religious faith when local Hindu groups opposed it. Astrologers and diviners said flights passing over the temple would violate its sanctity. The airport’s navigational devices that would rise taller than the temple’s high mast would be an ill omen. The BJP took up the temple’s cause and upheld the Hindu groups’ opposition to the airport.

However, political observers point out that the impact of the airport issue would be limited to the Aranmula Legislative Assembly constituency, one of the seven in the Pathanamthitta parliamentary constituency, though for the BJP it is a critical campaign issue. Ramesh said his party was not against the airport as such, but only wanted it to be relocated out of the vicinity of the temple.

The main electoral contest is between the Congress’ Anto Antony, the sitting MP, and the LDF-backed independent candidate Peelipose Thomas. The LDF carried out a coup by getting Thomas out of the Congress fold overnight and by setting him up as its candidate.

While he was in the Congress, Thomas had opposed the airport project and had thus earned the displeasure of the party.

“We will never let the airport come up at Aranmula,” Ramesh stated. Environmental groups, though not comfortable with the religious angle to the anti-airport initiative, are equally vehement.

The BJP, however, has limited presence in the Pathanamthitta constituency, observers say.