The Karnataka house panel may be right in its criticism of the work at Bangalore International Airport, but how can it blame individuals like Infosys chief mentor Narayana Murthy or BPL Innovision Chief Rajeev Chandrasekhar? The latter has clarified that he had quit before the project’s consortium had been chosen and was, in fact, very critical of the manner in which the consortium partners were awarding contracts to themselves. While Murthy remained the chairman of the company, the real powers remain with the day-to-day management — the chairman is a largely ceremonial post.
Of course, Murthy should have protested the awarding of such contracts and should have asked for international tenders. But it is an open question if the consortium partners would have agreed to this. The real culprits are the state government which allowed such a contract that let the consortium partners to award contracts to themselves; and the aviation ministry which allowed the airport authorities to charge passengers a user development fee (UDF) without looking into the costs of the project.
Sanjiv Bhalla, New Delhi
