The Communist Party of India Marxist (CPI-M) on Monday stated that it will forcefully oppose any move by the Centre regarding the possibility of the privatization of the national carrier Air India, both inside and outside the Parliament. The party further added that such a step would be detrimental to national interest.
"The Left will insist on saying that the reason for Air India to continue to make losses is because of wrong decisions by the Government of India. For that they cannot penalize a commercial organization," senior CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury told ANI.
"Air India has many other responsibilities, other than mere profit generation, which no other private airline does in our country, in terms of whenever there are natural disasters, whenever the state visits occur. I mean the entire cost and the entire thing is serviced by Air India," Yechury added.
Registering his serious objection to the possibility of Air India's privatization in future, Yechury further said that lakhs of people would be affected by such a decision.
"Any step of this nature would be completely detrimental for national interest and for the interest of lakhs of people who have contributed to keep our national flag flying in the air. So, this will be very seriously objected to both inside the Parliament and outside the Parliament," he said.
While announcing the civil aviation policy today, Union Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapati Raju Pusapati reportedly announced his ministry's plan to list Airports Authority of India (AAI) and Pawan Hans Ltd on the stock exchanges.
The Minister also hinted the possibility of privatising Air India which he said will not happen immediately, but cannot be ruled out for the future.
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