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Aparna Kalra
New Delhi, April 18: The fall of the government has effectively left the disinvestment exercise of Air India and Indian Airlines hanging in mid air. Although civil aviation minister Ananth Kumar did not make much headway on the issue except making the right noises, the fragile nature of the next government also does not inspire much confidence on the disinvestment exercise gaining momentum.
The disinvestment, however, quoted often as one of the achievements of the BJP Government, did not move beyond rhetoric. The civil aviation and finance ministries failed to arrive at any decision on the modalities or time-frame for the disinvestment process.
In the face of mounting losses of Air India, its disinvestment is an urgent way out to save the Maharajah. The exercise is now in limbo.
For Indian Airlines the fall of the BJP Government poses further uncertainty on the proposed Rs 125 crore assistance from the Government which was promised in the budget of 1998-99. The airline was planning to replace its ageingfleet with these funds as margin money.
IA will now await the new Government's stance on the Vijay Kelkar committee's suggestions on its revival. AI, meanwhile, was still awaiting the Kelkar report on its revival.
The 13-month tenure of the minister was otherwise dogged by more controversies than achievements. Kumar joined the ranks of his predecessors Ghulam Nabi Azad and CM Ibrahim and followed the beaten track of opposing the Tata Airline proposal. However, the minister, unlike his predecessors, was "successful" in scuttling the Tata Airline proposal.
The BJP Government passed a policy preventing "indirect or direct" entry of foreign airlines in the country and the Tata Airline project's repeated deferment by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) was an indication that politics rather then economics won the day.
The Tatas not only withdrew their airline proposal in protest but also axed their other major foray in aviation, the greenfield Bangalore airport, citing negative attitude of theministry as the reason for their decision.
It remains to be seen whether the Tatas, who continue to have a business interest in the civil aviation sector, will float a project with a new Government in power.
Just as the dust was settling on the Tata controversy, BJP's man from Bangalore dismissed of joint Air India (AI) and Indian Airlines (IA) board of directors in a midnight move.
The board, along with IA managing director P C Sen, had earned the minister's ire for adopting a 3-year time frame for the merger of AI and IA. The airlines till date function with an incomplete board.
Ananth Kumar deserves his due, however, in taking a firm stance against air traffic sontrollers (ATCs) whose strikes repeatedly held the Indian skies to ransom during his term in office. In a decisive move, the minister dismissed six striking ATC office bearers to end a fortnight-old go slow agitation.
Kumar was also the first aviation minister to attempt a corporatisation of state-controlled airports. The state-ownedairlines once again failed to purchase a single aircraft despite an urgent need for capacity expansion by AI and fleet replacement by IA.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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