A few days ago, TVK Industries Minister S Keerthana stood up in the Tamil Nadu Assembly and told the House that two airport projects, Andhra Pradesh’s Kuppam greenfield airport and Karnataka’s second Bengaluru airport near Hosur, were “completely baseless” and existed only “on social media.” The documents say otherwise. Government gazettes say otherwise. Even the Karnataka Chief Minister’s own press statement, carried by The Hindu, says otherwise. But CM Joseph Vijay is silent.
This was not an ignorant response or a slip of the tongue. It was a categorical denial, issued on the floor of the House, of two projects that are both real, both funded, and both moving through statutory process while Keerthana was speaking.
What Happened In The Assembly
The exchange began when DMK MLA Srinivasan raised the Hosur airport question in the Assembly, alleging that Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka were actively working to box out Tamil Nadu’s Krishnagiri district: Andhra Pradesh with its Kuppam project, Karnataka with a second Bengaluru airport that Srinivasan said Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar was pushing precisely to deny Krishnagiri its own facility. Srinivasan asked a direct question: with both neighbouring states racing ahead, was Krishnagiri about to be left behind?
Keerthana’s answer was to erase the premise entirely. She told the House the claims were baseless, said they were social media rumours, and asked the MLA for “aadharam”, evidence. The message to the Assembly, and to the state, was that no such projects exist outside WhatsApp forwards.
The Evidence She Dismissed
Start with Kuppam. This is not a rumour. It is a District Collector’s gazette notification. Chittoor District Gazette No. 77/2026, dated 13 March 2026, issued under Section 19(1) of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition Act (Act 30 of 2013), formally declares that 4.70 acres across seven survey numbers in Bondalagunta village, Ramakuppam mandal, are required for “Development of Greenfield Airport at Kuppam in Chittoor District.”
The document names the landowners parcel by parcel — Papanna, Timmakka, Muneppa, G. Perumakka, G. Govindappa, Perumakka — with boundaries mapped against neighbouring survey numbers.
This is the machinery of a state government acquiring land for a named infrastructure project. It is published on the Chittoor District government’s own website for anyone to inspect. And the project has already survived a legal challenge: the Supreme Court dismissed a case against the land acquisition process in April 2026, months before Keerthana called the whole thing baseless in the House.
Now Bengaluru. On 9 July 2026, The Hindu reported Karnataka Chief Minister DK Shivakumar announcing, at a briefing in Bengaluru, that the location for the state’s second airport would be in Bengaluru South.
This was not an anonymous leak or a social media post. It was the Chief Minister of a neighbouring state, on record, at an official briefing, naming a location. Karnataka has separately been advancing airport plans at Harohalli and Sira, sites that have been discussed publicly for months.
Two states. Two officially documented projects, one backed by a gazette and a Supreme Court order, the other by the neighbouring Chief Minister’s own words in the press. Keerthana called both non-existent.
What This Actually Means For Hosur
The stakes here are not abstract. Tamil Nadu’s own Hosur airport project, first announced by the previous DMK government in June 2024, still stuck on site selection and a BIAL no-objection hurdle is competing for the same investment corridor as Kuppam and Karnataka’s second airport. If Andhra Pradesh gets an operational greenfield airport near the Tamil Nadu border while Hosur’s tender sits on hold, Krishnagiri’s industrial base, Tata Electronics, Ola, TVS, thousands of MSMEs, has every reason to look elsewhere. That is precisely the risk Srinivasan raised in the Assembly. Keerthana’s response was not to engage with that risk. It was to tell the House the risk itself was fictional.
An Industries Minister who does not know that a neighbouring state has already published a land acquisition gazette for a competing airport is not fit to hold the portfolio. An Industries Minister who does know, and denied it anyway, lied to the Assembly.
What Is Joseph Vijay Doing?
C. Joseph Vijay’s government is not new; Keerthana has held the Industries portfolio since 10 May 2026. Three months in, his Cabinet is either unaware of publicly available land acquisition gazettes from a bordering district or comfortable enough with misleading the Assembly that no correction has followed. Both are Vijay’s problem, not just Keerthana’s.
A minister denying a documented government notification on the floor of the House is not a matter of opinion or spin. It is a false statement of fact to the state legislature, and it has gone uncorrected. Vijay has said nothing. No clarification has been issued from the Chief Minister’s office, no walk-back from Keerthana’s own ministry, no acknowledgment that the “social media rumour” she dismissed carries a District Collector’s signature and a Supreme Court order behind it.
If Joseph Vijay lets this stand, the question stops being about one minister’s homework and becomes about whether his government treats the Assembly as a place for facts or for whatever line clears the day’s news cycle.
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