by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group
Ajit Singh, Raju targeted in Air Asia case
The timing of CBI's action against Air Asia (India) Limited (AAIL), a joint venture between the prestigious Tata Sons Limited and others
surprised many in the corridors of powers. The fact that Air Asia case was hanging fire for a long time and no one was interested in pursuing it either considering the fact that TATAs were partners in the project and it also involved Tony Fernandes, a Malaysian businessman of India origin. But changed political situation brought sudden alacrity at the CBI headquarters and everybody was under fire irrespective of the status. It now transpires that two former Civil Aviation Ministers, Ajit Singh and Ashok Gajapati Raju, are also under the scanner in the case apart from some officials of the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) who also cleared the proposal. The CBI say that Air Asia was granted critical permissions to fly on international routes in violation of laid down rules and procedures which were arbitrarily amended by the then ministers and officials. Incidentally, Praful Patel was not the Civil Aviation Minister and had made way for Ajit Singh of RLD who headed the ministry from December 18, 2011 to May 25, 2014. The Air Asia submitted applications to the FIPB in February 2013 and received a formal approval in April 2013, followed by the no objection certificate in September 2013 and an Air Operating Permit in May 2014 permitting it to start domestic operations in India. Simultaneously, a secret cabinet note was sent on 27 February 2014 to the cabinet to amend the existing 5/20 rule for operation of international scheduled in civil aviation. Tony Fernandes, wanted the airline to fly on international routes and local partner Tata Sons through its nominee Venkataramanan, was supposed to lobby to obtain government approvals including a FIPB clearance and an amendment to then prevalent 5/20 civil aviation rule. The 5/20 rule stipulated that international flying licenses could be granted to airlines with five years' of domestic operations and a minimum of 20 aircraft in their fleet. The civil aviation ministry had sent a clarification in the form of a supplementary note on 5 March 2014 to the cabinet to relax the rules. But it could not be done as Lok Sabha polls had been announced on 5 March 2014. Finally, the 5/20 rule was relaxed in June 2016 when Ashok Gajapati Raju of the TDP was the Civil Aviation Minister. The Air Asia probe was hanging fire as the government didn't want to needle either Ajit Singh of the RLD or Raju who was NDA partner until a couple of months ago. Now that Ajit Singh has aligned with SP-BSP-Congress and TDP parted company with the NDA, there was no reason for the government to put the probe on the back burner.
TRS plans to open Federal front office
The Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao seem to be in a big hurry. If reports are true, he is set to open Federal Front office in Delhi in June-July. He is so desperate to cement the front of non-BJP and non-Congress parties, that he has decided to open an office in Delhi at his official residence at 23, Tuglak Road itself. The sprawling bungalow in Lutyens’ Delhi has been allotted to the CM and his daughter, K. Kavitha, a member of the Lok Sabha. KCR decided to open the office to give a fillip to like-minded parties after he held back to back meetings with several leaders including M. Karunanidhi, M.K. Stalin, former UP CM Akhilesh Yadav, Mamata Banerjee, former Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren, H D Deve Gowda and others. KCR would be visiting Bhubaneswar later this month to meet Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik and also visit Mumbai to meet Shiv Sena leader Uddhav Thackeray and NCP leader Sharad Pawar. TRS MPs in Delhi are trying to get an appointment with BSP leader Mayawati. But she is somewhat cool to the idea of a federal front itself. KCR is planning to hold a round-table conference with different parties and experts at the time of the office inauguration in New Delhi.
Rahul changes tack, hugs Jagan Reddy now !
Gone are the days when Rahul Gandhi was stubborn, inflexible and a poor listener. Over the past couple of months, Congressmen and callers on him are feeling a sea-change in the attitude and conduct of the new Congress president. Now all this a thing of the past and he is responding to calls, available to party leaders and even shunning his notions against some of the leaders. He principle is to stop Prime Minister Narendra Modi at all costs from returning to power during 2019 Lok Sabha polls. In order to achieve this objective, he is willing to walk an extra mile which he did in Karnataka to the surprise of the BJP leadership. He even installed Kamal Nath as president of the Madhya Pradesh unit of the party despite personal dislike. Recently, he has given the go-ahead to explore all possibilities to tie up with YSR Congress leader Jagan Mohan Reddy. The Congress party was virtually a pocket borough edition of YSR Reddy in Andhra Pradesh. However, the Congress leadership refused to accept Jagan Mohan Reddy as the automatic choice for the Chief Ministership. This finally led to the extinction of the Congress itself from the state. Now Rahul Gandhi has signaled that Congress is willing to do business with YSR Congress. As part of this strategy, Digvijay Singh has been divested of the charge of Andhra Pradesh and former Kerala CM Omen Chandy has been appointed general secretary incharge. Chandy was very close to YS Chandrshekhar Reddy. Rahul Gandhi is pursuing the same strategy in every state with the sole objective to dislodge the BJP and concede even the prime position held by the party.
