The ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) appeared to throw the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) Opposition a curveball by “unexpectedly” allowing an adjournment motion in the Assembly to debate the feasibility of the politically contentious K-Rail (SilverLine) semi-high-speed railway project.
The government’s move to take the wind out of the UDF’s sails triggered a heated three-hour debate and ended with an Opposition walkout after the House rejected the motion by voice vote.
Leader of the Opposition V. D. Satheesan said Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had resorted to obfuscation to hide the quixotic scheme’s ruinous environmental and economic consequences. He accused the government of fudging crucial K-Rail data to mislead the public and deployed the police to stifle widespread protests.
Mr. Vijayan said K-Rail would open up Kerala’s verdant hinterlands to rapid development and spur economic growth. “It is an investment for the future. The government would not shelve the project. I seek the Opposition’s cooperation for the State’s tomorrow,” he said.
Denying that SilverLine was a capital intensive investment, he explained that a low-interest loan with a repayment deadline of 40 years would fund the project.
He claimed that the government's willingness to debate the issue in Assembly had caught the UDF off-guard. The Opposition's tirade against K-Rail was rich in rhetoric but deficient in facts. Its attempt to demonise K-Rail had turned a damp squib, he said.
UDF legislators counterattacked by stating that K-Rail would push Kerala into an irredeemable debt trap, degrade its environment, exacerbate cataclysmic climate events, exhaust the State's finite natural resources and physically tear the region asunder.
They alleged Mr. Vijayan “acted like a despot” by branding K-Rail naysayers as saboteurs and traitors. K-Rail was a vehicle for “corruption and commission”. Kerala had embarked on a ₹2,20,000-crore project when it was scrounging for money to keep the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation afloat.
Congress legislator P.C. Vishnunath, who introduced the motion, said Mr. Vijayan was helping Indian corporates palm off obsolete Japanese technology to Kerala at the taxpayer's expense. LDF allies were not convinced about the scheme's viability.
LDF legislators harped about the Congress’s poor show in the recent Assembly elections to frustrate the Opposition’s attack. They said UDF’s resistance to SilverLine was tantamount to “infanticide”.
