MUMBAI, Apr 22: The Shiv Sena on Monday urged the
NDA Government to take over the temporarily grounded private
carrier Jet Airways and save its staff from losing their jobs.
It asked Prime Minister Modi to take a cue from the
foresight shown by former PMs Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira
Gandhi in nationalising insurance and airline companies.
Speaking about the impact of the temporary shut down
of the 25-year-old airline, the Sena, in an editorial in party
mouthpiece ‘Saamana’, said the curse of those rendered jobless
would be more powerful than that of a ‘sadhvi’.
It was apparently referring to remarks made by BJP
leader Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, an accused in the Malegaon
blast case, who recently claimed that senior police officer
Hemant Karkare died during the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks as
she “cursed” him for torturing her.
The cash-starved Jet Airways ceased all its operations
temporarily last week. The airline had sought a Rs 400 crore
emergency fund from its lenders to whom it already owes over
Rs 8,500 crore, but was refused as it was not ready to offer
more collaterals.
“Such incidents underscore the foresight of Pandit
Nehru and Indira Gandhi and their insistence on
nationalisation of insurance and airline companies in the
country. Prime Minister Narendra Modi needs to show similar
foresight in the matter of Jet Airways,” the Sena said.
“Our demand to the government is that it take over Jet
Airways and save its staff from getting unemployed,” said the
Uddhav Thackeray-led party, which is an ally of the BJP at the
Centre and in Maharashtra.
The Sena said it has presented issues of the airline’s
staff before the government.
“The curse of the staff that is now unemployed is more
powerful than that of a ‘sadhvi’. The government could have
avoided such a situation,” it said.
It noted that investors had demanded exit of Jet
Airways’ chairman and founder Naresh Goyal and the State Bank
of India was also supposed to provide an assistance of Rs 400
crore to the airline.
However, despite Goyal’s exit from the airline, not
even Rs 500 was disbursed to its employees, it said.
The Sena wondered “if some corporate force was acting
behind the curtains to ensure the airline’s collapse”.
Breaking Indian businesses and laying red carpet for
foreign investors cannot be the nation’s policy, it opined.
Citing the example of the government providing a
financial assistance of Rs 29,000 crore to Air India since it
was a state-run company, the Sena said Jet Airways and (now
defunct) Kingfisher were also Indian companies.
It also expressed surprise over the Bombay High
Court’s refusal to intervene in the Jet Airways crisis.
The high court last Thursday said it cannot direct the
Government and the Reserve Bank of India to rescue a “sick
company”. (PTI)
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