Kerala HC junks State Government’s pleas against leasing out Thiruvananthapuram airport to Adani Enterprises. Communist hypocrisy exposed

One more hypocrisy of Communists stands exposed. On Monday, Kerala High Court dismissed the Communist party-ruled Kerala Government’s petition opposing the Central Government leasing out Thiruvananthapuram airport to Adani Enterprises. What is the problem of Adani, who won the bid of the Central Government for the Communist Government in Kerala, where the State Government has already leased out Vizhinjam seaport to the same Adani Group? Promoter Gautam Adani was given a red carpet welcome to CPI(M) State Committee office whenever he visited Kerala to inspect the Group’s ongoing construction of the seaport in Vizhinjam, which is 30 km away from the Thiruvananthapuram Airport. This is the typical hypocrisy of Communists – no problem for Adani to build & operate a State Government’s seaport, but the problem in operating Airport.

Rejecting Kerala’s Government’s petition, the High Court said that there was no valid ground to interfere with the policy decision of the Central Government which invited open bids for six airports including Thiruvananthapuram. The Division Bench comprising Justices K Vinod Chandran and C S Dias rejected arguments by the State Government and other petitioners against the Centre’s move to lease out the airport to Adani Enterprises through public-private partnership (PPP) for a period of 50 years.

Only the ruling Communist party Government which wholeheartedly co-operates with Adani Group in much bigger seaport construction can explain these mysterious developments.

It is interesting to note that the Kerala Government is the major shareholder in the nearby professionally run Kochi Airport, which is India’s first privatized Airport. But the Kochi Airport company CIAL never attended the open bid to take over Thiruvananthapuram Airport from the Airports Authority of India (AAI). Instead, the Kerala Government applied through an inexperienced Industries Department’s unit Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation (KSIDC), and lost the bid to Adani. Interestingly, the CIAL attended the bid for the outside state, Mangalore Airport, and they’re also lost to Adani Group. Only the ruling Communist party Government which wholeheartedly co-operates with Adani Group in much bigger seaport construction can explain these mysterious developments.

Referring to the unsuccessful bid by the Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation (KSIDC), the nominee of the state, under the Request For Proposal (RFP) (tender document) for the airport project, it said the petitions challenging the lease decision was a classic example of sour grapes. “We conclude that there is absolutely no valid ground to cause interference to the proceedings challenged in the batch of writ petitions. As is discernible from the averments in the writ petitions, the challenge is against privatization which is the declared policy of the Union Government,” it said.

Adani Enterprises had won the rights to run six airports — Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Mangaluru, Thiruvananthapuram, and Guwahati — through the PPP model after a competitive bidding process in February 2019.