Coimbatore: BJP state president K Annamalai said there are advantages as well as disadvantages in tungsten mining project in Madurai.
Addressing the gathering at Arise, Awake and Assert conclave organised by Voice of Kovai, an NGO, on Sunday in Coimbatore, Annamalai said that it was true that there would be displacement of people from the locality identified for mining if the project were to take shape. At the same time there would be numerous jobs generated and the villagers would become independent, he said.
However, there are no politicians who would explain to the people about both sides. Rather there was only blind opposition, he charged. "Only when people get awareness and raise their voice, the politics of protest would end," he said. Annamalai said that the state govt did not oppose the project until the central govt cleared it and awarded tender. "If there was objection, the state should have expressed it beforehand. Ten months after the tender was floated, the chief minister wrote to the Centre opposing it," he said.
Annamalai said because of the Sterlite plant closure in Tuticorin, India was importing copper from abroad. "If common people develop awareness behind such issues, none can exploit them for politics gains," he said.
He said there are political parties that adopt a politics of performance, while some adopt politics of appeasement and some follow politics of nepotism and some politics of inefficiency. "It is for the people to choose the best for the country," he said.
BJP state president K Annamalai took a dig at deputy chief minister Udhayanidhi Stalin stating that a successful actor has become a politician (Vijay) while a failed actor has become a deputy chief minister.
Earlier, he told reporters that TN BJP would meet Union petroleum minister and urge him to lay gas pipelines along the highways instead of agricultural land for the Irugur-Devangonthi Pipeline (IDPL) project as demanded by farmers.