Kathmandu. Chief Minister of Kerala State, India, Pinarayi Vijayan on Wednesday wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi rejecting the Union Cabinet’s approval to hand over Thiruvananthapuram International Airport to the private sector.
In a wise objection to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s intention of implementing anti-people neoliberal policies in the service of the bourgeoisie class and weaken the communist-led state government, CM Vijayan wrote a two-page letter, and said that the transfer of the airport to a private bidder is “against the wishes of the people” of Kerala and the Centre should reconsider the decision.
In the letter to the PM Modi, Kerala Chief Minister said, “It has been reported that the Union Cabinet has decided to hand over the management and operation of Trivandrum International Airport to a private bidder ignoring the repeated requests of the Government of Kerala entrusting the same to the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) in which the State Government is a major stakeholder.”
Mentioning his personal meeting with PM Modi, “The assurance was that as and when induction of a private player is considered, Government of India would factor in the contributions made by the State Government to the development of the Trivandrum Airport” and added that it was discussed during a personal meeting in Delhi.
Chief Minister Vijayan requested the Union Cabinet to either delink the Trivandrum Airport from the newly-announced privatisation of airports under the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model or allow the SPV to have the right to the first refusal to match the quote of the highest bidder.
Modi Government is proactively working to privatise most of the public institution and implement harsh neoliberal economic policies in service of the foreign capital and Indian comprador class. Recently, Union Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said that he will present a proposal before the Union Cabinet about the privatisation of airports across the country.
Full Text of the letter (photo):
