The ongoing agitation at Aranmula was a model struggle for a just cause by different people with divergent ideologies, said Benoy Viswom, former Forest Minister.
Mr. Viswom was addressing the indefinite satyagraha by the People’s Joint Action Council — chaired by poet and activist Sugathakumari — at Aranmula on Friday. He said the local MP, Anto Antony, and MLA, K. Sivadasan Nair, should have shown their social responsibility to protect the environmentally sensitive Aranmula Puncha and the main drinking water source of the entire village.
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Decrying the MP’s reported statement that the ongoing mass movement at Aranmula was sponsored by people from outside the village was nothing short of villainy, Mr. Viswom alleged. The MP was eyeing the “black money” of land-grabbers. His declaration that the controversial Aranmula airport project would be implemented at any cost was nothing short of challenging the people who had elected him, Mr. Viswom said.
He said neither the MP nor the private company would be able to deceive people of Kerala and Aranmula by playing his “pseudo-development card.”
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In a statement here on Friday, Kummanam Rajashekharan, Aranmula Heritage Village Action Council chief patron, alleged that the MP, with his staunch support to the airport company that had violated all laws of the land, was challenging the villagers’ right to live.
In effect, Mr. Antony was challenging the proceedings of the court by making irresponsible statements on the controversial project, he alleged.
He said the MP should clarify whether he was ready to conduct an opinion poll among the people of Aranmula on the proposed anti-people project. He offered full cooperation to the MP for convening ward-level grama sabhas in Aranmula and Mallappuzhaserry panchayats to feel the popular pulse.