Karti Chidambaram urges Tamil Nadu to identify second airport site at the earliest
Congress MP Karti Chidambaram on Monday urged the Tamil Nadu government to identify a suitable site for the second airport project at the earliest, saying the existing airport at Meenambakkam was struggling to handle the overwhelming passenger flow.
His remarks came after the state government withdrew its proposal to set up a second airport at Parandur near Chennai. Speaking to reporters in Tiruchi, where he attended a town hall along with Tirunelveli MP C. Robert Bruce and Tiruchi MP Durai Vaiko, Mr. Chidambaram described the Chennai airport as 'over-utilised and shabbily maintained'.
He noted that world-class airports had come up in New Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Bengaluru, and that Chennai too needed such a facility. Since the Parandur proposal encountered obstacles from villagers, he said the government should identify a suitable site after getting the consent of local residents.
On the Women's Reservation Bill, Mr. Chidambaram said there was no need to link it with the delimitation exercise for increasing the number of Lok Sabha seats beyond 850. He pointed out that even with the current strength of 543, 181 seats could be reserved for women, and 13 of the 40 seats in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry could be allotted to them. He said the BJP was trying to connect the delimitation plan with the Bill for its own political benefit.
He further alleged that the BJP was luring a few regional parties with the promise of a 50 percent increase in seats without considering population. This, he said, would leave Tamil Nadu and Puducherry with only 60 seats, while Uttar Pradesh's share would jump from 80 to 120. He argued that a party gaining more seats in northern India could easily come to power, making southern India's political presence irrelevant. He suggested retaining the existing 543 seats for the next 25 years.
Mr. Durai Vaiko, without naming the DMK's mouthpiece Murasoli, said the newspaper was carrying articles in support of the delimitation proposed by the BJP.
Mr. Chidambaram also criticised the Centre on the devolution of Central funds, saying it was unrealistically linking its policies with the sharing of funds. He called the recently passed Mines and Minerals Act, which he said was legislated without consensus or debate in Parliament, a measure that would take away the state's say on the crucial issue.
On the FCRA Amendment Bill 2026, Mr. Vaiko said the BJP-led Centre was forced to refer it to a Joint Parliamentary Committee due to stiff resistance from the Opposition. He claimed that the Bill, if enacted in its present form, would empower the Union government's administrator to take control of schools, colleges, and hospitals run by religious minorities if minor discrepancies were found in accounting foreign contributions. He warned that this would grossly affect the education and healthcare of poor Hindus. Mr. Chidambaram termed it 'weaponisation of law' against civil society.
When asked if the INDIA bloc without the DMK was strong enough to take on the BJP, Mr. Chidambaram said parties that had differences in states were cooperating at the national level, citing the Left parties and Congress. He added that it was up to the DMK to support federalism and secularism.
Mr. Chidambaram also cautioned the Tamil Nadu government that the bureaucracy, by issuing unilateral announcements against protests and students participating in agitations, was apparently dominating the rulers.
