"We are not putting the blame of the outcome on pioneering entrepreneurs like the Tatas. But my government had just five months to examine the project. This is not a long time" a voluble Kumar clarified at the economic editors conference.

The minister, who faced a barrage of questions on the airline project in the 90-minute session, said that the Tata Airline project was "under active consideration for four months" by his ministry. He clarified that the project was no longer under review as stated by the prime minister in Lucknow.

However, he added, "Our counter is still open. But if Ratan Tata says that he is tired after waiting for three years and four governments to review the project, I cannot help it".

In a clear attempt to shift responsibility of axing of the project on the Tatas, the minister said "We were attempting to ascertainwhether a link existed between Singapore Airlines and the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation, which is one of the FIIs investing in the Tata Airline, when the Tatas withdrew the project" said the minister.

"My ministry did not reject the proposal" emphasised Kumar.

Quoting from statistics often during the session, the minister pointed out that many counties did not permit any foreign equity in the domestic aviation sector.

He said that domestic aviation in India should be compared with countries such as USA, Brazil, Argentina and China which have a huge geographical area andt not with places like Singapore. "None of these countries permit foreign holdings in domestic aviation" said Kumar.

He also spoke at length on the civil aviation ministry's oft-repeated argument that any capacity expansion in the domestic aviation sector would make the entire aviation industry sick.

Answering queries on why Jet Airways and Sahara Airlines were being permitted to expand their fleets in such a gloomyscenario, the minister said "all the recent permissions to these airlines are for small aircraft only".

The minister said that both Jet Airways and Sahara Airlines are operating at below their full capacity allocations as a result of the falling domestic air traffic.

On ModiLuft being given permission to re-launch despite its track record, the minister defended that the no-objection certificate to ModiLuft was a conditional one.

Fate of airport to be decided tomorrow

The fate of the Bangalore international airport at Devanahalli will be decided at a meeting between Ananth Kumar, defence minister George Fernandes and state chief minister J H Patel on Friday.

Kumar informed the economic editors's conference that the government plans to thrash out all outstanding issues concerning the international airport at Bangalore. They include the share of traffic for the existing Hindustan Aeronatics Ltd (HAL) airport which falls under the aegis of the defence ministry.

At an informal chat withjournalists, the minister said that the Tata-led consortium will be posted later on these developments by the Karnataka chief minister.

Earlier in the conference, Kumar said "Ratan Tata had promised to get back to me regarding a re-feasibility study for the Bangalore project. But this did not happen".