Praful Patel,
Civil Aviation Minister
Even before Praful Patel could change the maroon carpets and the ivory leather upholstery at his second floor office in Rajiv Gandhi Bhavan "" a task which new ministers undertake with great zeal to undo the legacies of their predecessors "" the Rs 400 crore bidi king from Maharashtra had managed to send many a senior United Progressive Alliance (UPA) kingmakers into a tailspin thanks to his decision to cap foreign direct investment (FDI) in airport privatisation at 49 per cent.
His own Cabinet colleagues, leave alone the Left parties, have found fault with his decision. But this has not dampened Patel's spirits. His instruction to the mandarins at Rajiv Gandhi Bhawan is to go full steam for the privatisation of the Mumbai and Delhi airports in the first stage and then look at the other 100 odd airports spread across the country in the later phases.
Patel is no stranger to crises. Even his induction to the council of ministers was not all that easy. If whispers in Delhi's political circles are to be believed, a Mumbai based powerful business group with the backing of a key politician from Maharashtra tried to block his take off.
A confidant of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president Sharad Pawar, Patel says he is determined to clear the hurdles to the growth of the Indian civil aviation sector. Within days of assuming office, Patel charted out the policy framework for his high profile ministry.
His key decisions include clearing the way for the long delayed Air-India Express (the low cost carrier from the Maharaja) as well as giving fast track permission to the two state owned airlines to take aircraft on lease till a decision on their fleet acquisition is taken. Another decision, which can be expected to create another round of murmurs, would be the re-look at the fleet acquisition plan of Indian Airlines.
Patel is, however, confident of his success in this ministry. "I have seen this sector from close enough. Besides, my business and corporate background help me understand what the private sector wants. These will be my assets here," Patel says.
Patel's Ceejay Group manages his diversified interests in bidis, tobacco processing, healthcare, edible oils, packaging, finance and real estate.
His family also runs an education society in the Gondia district of Maharashtra, which has some 80,000 students in disciplines such as the arts, commerce, law, engineering, pharmacy, IT and management.
Born on February 17, 1957 in Kolkata, this commerce graduate from the University of Bombay took a liking to politics in early '80s and became the president of the municipal council of Gondia in Maharashtra in 1985. He learnt his first lessons on politics from his father, late Manoharbhai Patel, a senior Congress leader. His rise has been swift. Patel is currently the spokesperson as well as one of the national leaders of Pawar's NCP.
Patel was first elected to the Lok Sabha in 1991 from the Bhandara constituency. He was re-elected in 1996 and 1998. He became a member of the Rajya Sabha in 2000. In the latest election, he lost from Bhandara.
Patel is the president of the Western India Football Association, vice-president of All India Football Federation, the Maharashtra Olympic Association and the National Sports Club of India. He is married to Varsha and has one son and three daughters.
Though he might be new to the corridors of power in New Delhi, Patel is a seasoned politician. Though the Left has raised a stink about him announcing the changes in FDI in airport privatisation on his own without consulting them, he did contact A.B. Bardhan before making a final announcement.
But officials from his ministry had already told journalists about the proposal the previous night. Bardhan was presented with a fait accompli. If this a preview of things to come, his tenure will surely be an absorbing one.
