Echoes of perceived disunity within the Left Democratic Front (LDF) appear to cast a shadow over the State government's resolve to forge ahead with its flagship SilverLine semi-high-speed railway project to be developed by Kerala Rail Development Corporation Limited (K-Rail).
Moreover, the arguably growing resistance to lay SilverLine markers on private land has reportedly frustrated the administration's attempt to fast-track the project.
Meanwhile, the epicentre of Friday's anti-SilverLine protests shifted to Alappuzha with police baton-charging Youth Congress (YC) protesters who attempted to lay K-Rail markers inside the district collectorate.
Adding to the government's woes, Communist Party of India (CPI) State assistant secretary K. Prakash Babu appeared to put the administration on the defence by asserting that not all SilverLine naysayers were anti-Left. His position appeared to belie the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] contention that anti-SilverLine protests had assumed the character of a "Liberation Struggle," the "infamous" coming together of "communal, casteist and anti-communist forces" in 1957 to overthrow the E.M.S. Namboodiripad government.
Nevertheless, Mr. Prakash appeared to temper his statement by stressing that the SilverLine was imperative for the State's development. He blamed the officialdom for fueling the protests by attempting to bulldoze the project. The government should change its tack and convince the people.
The CPI also sent somewhat contradictory signals regarding the project. Notably, it sought an explanation from K. Thankachan, a party official in Ernakulam, for publicly railing against the project.
It also did not help the SilverLine cause that Deepika, a Church-backed newspaper with a long anti-Left tradition, expressed deep scepticism about the project.
Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan accused Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan of reverting to old fashioned feudalism by attempting to stifle anti-SilverLine protests using the police. The Chief Minister’s obsession with K-Rail had pushed thousands of families to the street to protect their homes, land and means of livelihood.
Meanwhile, the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) commenced a door-to-door campaign to counter the Opposition's anti-SilverLine crusade.
