How Tamil Nadu airport cancellation turned into a battle of ‘sons-in-law’

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay being felicitated by Parandur Green Airport Project Opposition Struggle Committee, President G. Subramanian, Secretary S.D. Kathiresan, and other committee members at the Secretariat, in Chennai on Tuesday. (@CMOTamilnadu X/ANI Photo) 7 min readChennaiAug 26, 2026 01:21 PM IST First published on: Aug 25, 2026 at 07:42 PM IST The argument was supposed to be about an airport – whether Tamil Nadu could afford to abandon a second airport planned at Parandur, whether its paddy fields and water bodies justified that decision, and where Chennai would find the land for another one. Then R Nirmal Kumar, Tamil Nadu’s Energy and Law Minister, introduced a son-in-law. “If you look at all those who are now so worried and crying out here, it is for only one thing – either for the G Square son-in-law, or for those who took black money there and invested it,” he said.