What’s China got to do with elections in India’s southernmost town?
- Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu is the proposed site of a new US$4.8 billion port being championed by the BJP’s candidate Pon Radhakrishnan
- Analysts say it could take trade away from China-backed facilities in Sri Lanka, but critics and political opponents aren’t so sure
“Building a mega port or a transshipment port in India would hardly suffice to push back against Chinese attempts to dominate the Indian Ocean,” he said.
“Even if you manage to wean vessels away from Colombo, it does not mean that the Chinese will vacate the terminal they have invested in.”
Concerns have also been voiced about the possibility of China exploiting such facilities for militaristic purposes, he said.
“India fears that these commercial investments might be used as naval bases in the future,” said Srikant.
“The fact that two Chinese submarines docked at the Chinese-run terminal at Colombo’s South Harbour [in 2014] fuelled these fears. Protocol wise they should have docked at the government-operated terminal.”
Abhijit Singh, who heads the Maritime Policy Initiative at the Observer Research Foundation think tank, said China’s presence in Sri Lanka “does arouse suspicion in Indian minds”.
India’s dilemma: is it time to deal with Chinese influence in the Indian Ocean?
“With the vast majority of regional trade transshipped through Colombo, Chinese planners are likely to have anticipated Hambantota’s limited utility as a trading hub. Feasibility studies would have indicated as much,” he said.
“The fact that China still went ahead and made massive investments in developing infrastructure at the port, leads many in New Delhi to wonder if Beijing has a strategic plan for Hambantota. From an Indian point of view, it seems plausible the port could at a future date be used to position Chinese naval assets, even if Sri Lankan leaders vehemently deny that would ever be permitted.”
Geopolitical power struggles aside, the proposed port at Kanyakumari – which is known as both Colachel International Seaport and Enayam port – has also faced strong opposition from the area’s 300,000-strong fishing community.
M G Devasahayam, a retired civil servant, has been at the forefront of agitation against the port through his Rebuild Kanyakumari movement.
“The minister says it is a great development for the 1.8 million people of the district and that only 300,000 fisherpeople are opposing it. This is polarisation: he knows he will not win the votes of fisherpeople anyway,” he said, pointing to the fact that Radhakrishnan is a Hindu nationalist and the area’s fishing communities are predominantly Catholic.
The Congress party candidate for the constituency, as the BJP’s main rival, has also been convinced that the port is a bad idea, according to Devasahayam.
“He used to support the project …. On the first day here, he was told that he will not get votes if he does not follow our agenda. So he has immediately taken it up and is opposing the project,” he said.
India elections: the importance of being Uttar Pradesh
As well as local opposition, there is also the question of economic viability – just 80km north of the planned port, another new seaport is under construction at Vizhinjam in Kerala state, and about 250km further up the west coast is the eight-year-old international container transshipment terminal at Vallarpadam. There are also three ports already operating on Tamil Nadu’s east coast.
But Singh, of the Observer Research Foundation, said he was confident that the planned new ports “could recapture Indian domestic cargo – the vast majority of which is transshipped presently via Colombo”.
“New Delhi is hopeful that the port projects … [being] close to the main east-west international shipping routes and with deepwater depths to accommodate the latest generation of mega-ships, will act as a booster for trade, and cut Indian shipping costs,” he said.
“This would also integrate Indian ports into global production networks, providing a viable alternative to Colombo in South Asia.”
Devasahayam, the activist, disagrees. He maintains that the proposed port is financially unviable and will drag down Kanyakumari, which has the highest human development index among Tamil Nadu’s districts. “We don’t need jobs here. We don’t need this nonsense of a port,” he said.