With the Kerala government digging in its heels and announcing its intention to forge ahead with the SilverLine project, the CPI State leadership has come under pressure to adopt a cautious stand on the contentious issue.
On Monday, a group of the party’s fellow travellers whose fathers were prominent CPI leaders wrote a letter to the party State secretary Kanam Rajendran expressing anguish over the manner in which the CPI had offered support to the project without detailed discussions.
The letter, signed by the wards of 15 former CPI leaders, said the party had no obligation to back the CPI(M) which had “shown disregard for public opinion” while going ahead with the project that had the potential to impact the lives of ordinary people.
Pointing to the experience in West Bengal, the letter, a copy of which was made available to the media, said it was inadvisable to adopt a stand that would erode the party’s identity. It called on the CPI leadership to be prepared to analyse the key data relating to the SilverLine project, including the detailed project report (DPR) and the environmental impact assessment report instead of blindly supporting the project.
The signatories said the project was likely to affect the long-term interests of the State and called on the party leadership to organise a conclave of economists, social scientists and environmentalists before coming to a conclusion.
The party, they said, was bound to address the question whether Kerala really needed the SilverLine project in the light of the economic liability and the livelihood and rehabilitation issues it entailed.
The signatories include Dr. V.Ramankutty, son of C. Achutha Menon, Ambika Nair, daughter of M.N. Govindan Nair, Meghanad N.E. and Aysha Sasidharan, son and daughter of N.E. Balaram, S. Anitha, S. Shanthi, S. Ashok and S. Shankar, wards of Sharmajee, Sharada Mohanty and P. Baburaj, wards of C. Unniraja and Thomas Punnoose and Geetha Punnoose, children of P.T. Punnoose and Rosamma Punnoose, among others.
Despite the CPI’s feeder organisations, including the AIYF, the AISF and the AITUC, expressing reservations about SilverLine, the party State leadership had decided not to oppose the project though it had called for steps to allay the apprehensions raised by various quarters.
