THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: With the Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari revoking the controversial order stalling all highway development work in Kerala, a confrontation between the State and the Centre has been averted.

It may be mentioned that the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) had categorised, on April 15, as part of its policy guidelines, highway projects into high-priority-1 and high priority 2 , placing the State in the second category.

This provoked the ire of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan who accused the Centre of playing politics over development in the state. The controversial order, the CM alleged, had directed all regional offices to suspend the land acquisition process under the second category.

Gadkari’s circular says “the notification has been cancelled. There is no discrimination. The problem in Kerala is that the cost of land acquisition is very high and there are houses on the roadside. So road widening is an issue.”

The Minister added that he and the Kerala CM had decided to go ahead with the highway development whatever the cost. Gadkari allayed fears voiced by the political parties in Kerala, with the notable exception of BJP, that there will be no injustice towards Kerala. The Ministry is also set to issue a fresh clarification in this regard soon.

Thanks to Gadkari’s initiative, the tension has been defused. But the controversy has left in its trail of bitterness and anger especially against Kerala BJP president P S Sreedharan Pillai.

What excited the Chief Minister’s anger was Pillai’s writing a letter to the Centre seeking a halt to the land acquisition process in Kerala. A furious CM went to the extent of calling Pillai a sadist who sabotaged the highway development process in the State to further the BJP’s dirty political agenda to spite the LDF Government.    

Besides the Chief Minister, Finance Minister Thomas Issac also lashed out at Pillai and even sought his social boycott for trying to scuttle the development of Kerala.

Leader of the Opposition, Ramesh Chennithala sought an apology from Pillai for his attempts to stall the highway development in the state through a letter to the Union Minister.

A cornered Pillai, who felt the heat, has tried to deny any involvement in the episode. By sending the letter, Pillai said, he was only trying to bring to the notice of the Centre to the problems being faced by the victims of Cyclone Okhi in 2017 and those hit hard by the UN precedented floods that devastated the state last year.

Pillai’s clarification has however done little to erase the growing perception that the Kerala BJP leaders were clearly in the wrong. The sordid episode has put the state BJP on the defensive and it will be a tough ask for them to clear the air over their alleged involvement in scuttling the development of highways in the State.

 In the end, credit must be given to Gadkari for allaying the fears of Kerala on the issue by promptly withdrawing the controversial order. It was a timely intervention in consonance with the spirit of cooperative federalism about which other BJP leaders, including the Prime Minister wax eloquent but hesitate to practise.