The BJP leadership is apparently divided over support for the Tata airline project. Key Union ministers LK Advani and Sikander Bakht are reported to be among those who favoured the project.
Civil aviation minister Ananth Kumar had been under Pramod Mahajan's influence, since the latter was responsible for his becoming a cabinet minister, but had started drifting away from Mahajan recently, according to a BJP leader.
Kumar is essentially loyal to the party establishment close to Advani and could have cleared the project at Advani's behest.
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Some senior BJP leaders say that Mohan Guruswamy's appointment in the finance ministry too was at least in part at the behest of the pro-Tata lobby. He refused to comment yesterday but Guruswamy has expressed unhappiness at the development.
Some BJP leaders allege that Mahajan has been spearheading the campaign against the Tatas' proposal. Mahajan first opposed the proposal as chairman of the Parliamentary standing committee on transport when the BJP was in the opposition.
Some BJP Mps are members of the group of 40 Mps that opposed the Tatas' proposal, saying that this might endanger Indian Airlines' viability. This lobby could be pressurise the FIPB to postpone its meetings, another BJP leader said. A few of these Mps are close to Mahajan, he added.
Hope for the Tatas, however, was not lost as they were now free to make a fresh bid, one of them pointed out. The government, under its new scheme, would have to take a decision within 90 days of the proposal. The Tatas' could go to the court in case of an unfavourable decision, he pointed out.
The government could not apply double standards in dealing with the Tatas, particularly as they have public sympathy, he said, and have pioneered airline operations in the country, he added.Although some BJP leaders yesterday described the Tatas' decision to withdraw its airline proposal as a pressure tactic, many of them feared that the decision would damage the government's credibility.
Most of them refused to say anything publicly, though, knowing that some powerful BJP leaders have strong views on the project. The government's failure to clear the Rs 1,475 crore domestic airline project demonstrated that the government was acting under the pressure of the business lobbies opposed to the Tatas, they held, adding that some key BJP leaders worked behind the scenes to get the Tatas to withdraw. The few party leaders that are ready to speak on the issue publicly of course only defend the government.
Party general secretary, Sangh Priya Gautam, for instance, claimed that the government could not be faulted as the project had not been denied clearance.
Normally such proposals take time, he said. The government has to study each detail before giving a nod. The project had been hanging fire since the Congress government under PV Narasimha Rao was in power, Gautam argued.