Jaswant Singh seeks probe into grant of traffic rights to Abu Dhabi

In his letter to PM, alleges collusion between government officials and managements of Etihad Airways and Jet Airways (India) Ltd

Senior BJP leader and former external affairs minister Jaswant Singh has written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, seeking an investigation into the grant of bilateral traffic rights to the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

In his letter, Singh has raised four concerns.

Singh has alleged collusion between government officials and the managements of Etihad Airways and Jet Airways (India) Ltd. “Firstly, I think the decision was examined by the prime minister and the group of ministers (GoM), which is an able group. It is disappointing all issues were not considered by them. Secondly, the situation is such that after the approval by the union government, substantial investment was made within 24-hours. It points towards collusion, which should never happen,” Singh told Business Standard.

The United Arab Emirates-based Etihad in April agreed to buy a 24% stake in Jet for $ 379 million on the same day the Indian government offered increased traffic rights to Abu Dhabi. India agreed to approve an unprecedented 36,670 weekly seats between India and Abu Dhabi which analysts say would indirectly benefit Jet Airways.

A parliamentary committee led by Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Sitaram Yechury, and Janata Party chief Subramanian Swamy have also objected to the manner in which traffic rights were granted to Abu Dhabi.

Singh added, “My third concern was that when the deal will finally come into effect, Abu Dhabi will become hub of air transportation. It will be highly damaging to Indian airlines. The union government is giving substantial sum of money to Air India and the national carrier will suffer because of the deal.”

Singh said that he is concerned and that the letter was not supposed to be leaked but it got leaked. “I am disappointed that this letter was leaked to the media. I don’t believe in sensationalism and that was not my intension. This letter was written to Prime Minister some time back to raise concerns about the deal.” Singh has raised four concerns in the letter.

“The last concern was that in times of emergencies, if they will respond to such a national calamity if something like Uttarakhand tragedy happens. This is a civil airline. The airline will be in foreign hand and I have my doubts if they will respond as required”, Singh said.