Politics too behind souring ties

When a merger deal between companies owned by two politically connected figures like Naresh Goyal of Jet Airways and Subroto Roy of Air Sahara goes wrong, the reasons involved are likely to be more than just financial.

Despite having a presence of more than 12 years in the Indian skies, Goyal has always been hounded by controversies, apart from being known to be close to several senior politicians in the government and out of it.

His present troubles, says a senior Congress leader, may have to do with his proximity to a prominent minister in the UPA, whose party is in alliance with the Congress both at the Centre and the state level.

"The Congress and its ally are having problems and there has been some bad blood between them recently. This is being cited as one of the reasons why Goyal's troubles in the past "" of being considered a security risk by intelligence agencies in the NDA regime "" are being dug up," said a senior Congress minister.

Goyal is not the only one caught in this political crossfire. Subroto Roy, by virtue of his proximity to the Samajwadi Party and Congress' bete noire Amar Singh, is also in the political limelight.

While Samajwadi Party leaders hint that Roy's proximity to the party is now a thing of the past, political analysts point out that perceptions matter a lot in politics. "Perception is everything, and he is perceived as being close to the Samajwadi Party," a Congress minister said.