02-05-2025
Vizhinjam Port is a win for India and Kerala - why can't V.D. Satheesan get it?
Kerala politicians can never ever seem to think beyond their backyards. Or go to any lengths to whip up a political crisis of nothing. Which is a pity. And shameful.
Whatever reason V.D. Satheesan – the Congress Party stalwart and Kerala's Leader of the Opposition - had to stay away from the opening of the Rs89 billion Vizhinjam Deepwater Seaport was out and out political. If he had got the invite to attend, he should have - and not come out with the excuse of not receiving it on time.
It's also time Satheesan stops name-dropping the late Oomen Chandy's name in every conversation about the Vizhinjam Port. Because it doesn't get Satheesan or the Congress Party anywhere. (Satheesan's ire is that Oomen Chandy's role in initially getting the port project rolling has not been appreciated enough…)
But the real problem is Satheesan failure – a dismal failure – in not seeing the bigger picture. Because right now, that big picture is the one framed by the Vizhinjam Port. Nothing else matters.
A public-private sector development, the gigantic ports creates - and opens up - opportunities that a cash-strapped, debt-heavy Kerala economy needs. Things have never looked this good for Kerala from an economic perspective at any other time in the near future.
Compared to how projects usually shape up, this one actually did hit all the key construction milestones in fairly even time (once the teething problems associated with land acquisition was done). Operated by Adani Group, the port development has created jobs and offers the potential to add more to the workforce at a time when Kerala desperately needs to see more people employed gainfully.
Satheesan, if he actually cared, could also look at an even bigger picture. Of what this port at the southern point of the country would mean for India's trade and status as a transhipment hub. At a time, when global trade is transforming itself at a pace never imagined before.
India's got itself a truly next-generational seaport that gives the country's just that extra edge compared to what's available in its vicinity. This is a port that will add to India's chances as an economy that's taken its place among the world's biggest – and intends to stay there.
Would it have been too much for Satheesan to have attended the ceremony to mark this moment? Narendra Modi as Prime Minister and Pinarayi Vijayan as Kerala Chief Minister were there, and so did Gautam Adani and a host of others. There were those matter and those who do not figure in the grand scheme of things who attended. Because the opening of Vizhinjam Port was what mattered, nothing else.
Satheesan not attending did not change anything.
Sateeshan should know by now that every aspect of Indian life is shaded by some aspect of politics. There will be those who will lay claim to have been instrumental in bringing Vizhinjam Port to life. Let history decide who should get the credit.
