At an all-party meeting in Kerala, all parties barring the BJP, have come out unanimously against the Centre’s decision giving charge of Trivandrum International Airport to Adani Enterprises. The all-party meet has decided to move a resolution in this regard in the state assembly when it meets for a day on August 24.
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan later shot off his second letter in two days to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, conveying the decision taken at the all-party meeting and requested him to reconsider the privatisation move.
Adani Enterprises has won the rights to run six airports -- Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Mangaluru, Thiruvananthapuram, and Guwahati -- through the PPP (public private participation) model after a competitive bidding process in February, 2019.
The CM told the all-party meet that the state government had asked for the management and the operation of the airport with the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) in which it will be the major shareholder. The Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation (KSIDC) had taken part in the bidding.
"The state government had also informed the Centre that they were ready to offer the amount quoted by Adani Enterprises," he was quoted as having said in the meeting, in a release issued by the Chief Minister's office.
Pinarayi said it would be difficult for an entrepreneur to manage the airport without the cooperation of the state government.
"In case of development, the cooperation of the state government is a necessity. We don't think anyone would be interested in doing business challenging the state. We all are together in this protest against the decision," he said.
Meanwhile, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said the Kerala government had not qualified the bidding process that was carried out in a transparent manner.
"Winning bid quoted to Rs 168 per passenger, KSIDC quoted Rs 135 per passenger and third qualifying bidder was at Rs 63 per passenger", Puri who took to Twitter to clarify the Centre's stand on the airport's 2019 privatisation process, said.
Per passenger fee was the criteria for the bidding process that was conducted in early 2019 for the six airports and Adani Enterprises was the highest bidder.
Puri said before the bidding process began, the Centre and the Kerala government had agreed that if the KSIDC's bid comes within the 10% range of the winning bid, it would be awarded the airport.
However, as the difference between Adani's bid and that of KSIDC was 19.64%, the former was qualified as the winner.
"Thus, despite special provision of ROFR (Right of first refusal) being given to GoK (Government of Kerala), they could not qualify in the international bidding process carried out in a transparent manner", the Civil Aviation Minister said.
While Leader of Opposition Ramesh Chennithala called out the decision as a "dictatorial act", Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha MP and Congress leader Shashi Tharoor has come out in support of the move.
Shashi Tharoor said that a private entity running the operations competitively is the only way this airport could flourish.
"The people of Thiruvananthapuram want a first-class airport worthy of the city's history, status and potential. In this context, a decision, however, controversial, is preferable to the long delay we have suffered", he tweeted.
Slamming Tharoor, state minister Kadakampally Surendran said his stand was "treacherous" and sought his apology.
Meanwhile, Chennithala said the move was 'unacceptable' and should be 'resisted' while Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) party chief Mullapally Ramachandran called the move 'deplorable'.
On Thursday, Union Minister V Murleedharan attacked the Kerala government and said its stand exposed the "double standards" as the state already had "private airports" and the attempt was to take away the attention from the recent gold smuggling case.
"The state government's opposition to privatisation of Trivandrum airport has exposed their double standards. The Left party is okay to have private airports at Calicut and Kannur with a mere 32.5% and 30.16% stakes for the state, but oppose Centre's move with a better share for the government of India," he said in Delhi.
CPI(M) General secretary Sitaram Yechury slammed the Centre for the decision alleging that the move was a "loot of national assets" and would lead to escalation of ticket prices.
"Privatisation of airports is loot of national assets to fatten profits of cronies. Then issue Electoral Bonds to raise party funds. Kerala CM's letter makes it clear that this is happening by betraying assurances of PM Modi on the state government's proposal", he said in a tweet.
In a press release, the CPI claimed granting the airports to a single business entity and group would lead to monopoly.
It alleged that the group will "squeeze" the extra revenues from passengers and airlines.