In the ongoing verbal duel between Congress general secretary K.C. Venugopal and Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia over soaring air fares, Mr. Venugopal, in a fresh rebuttal late on Sunday, said “hard facts and everyday suffering of the middle class cannot be wished away by distorting figures and misrepresenting the actual facts on the ground,” in response to Mr. Scindia’s earlier comment calling him “ill-informed”.
In the latest, Mr. Venugopal, quoting the Delhi-Bengaluru flight rates, asked whether Mr. Scindia would defend the rates that ranged from ₹14,500 to ₹15,800. “This government has been incapable of curbing this price rise, preventing predatory behaviour on part of airlines, and has facilitated a loot at the hands of crony airport operators. That is the true picture of the aviation sector under PM Modi,” he tweeted.
The spat began with Mr. Venugopal’s jibe on Twitter on Saturday that the skyrocketing airfares has made Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s claim that those wearing hawai chappals (rubber slippers) can travel on a “hawai jahaaz” (airplane) sound like a “cruel joke”.
In a long post on Twitter, Mr. Venugopal cited the Delhi-Mumbai flight fares, which, he said, is currently around ₹15,000. He also accused the Modi government of giving a “free pass to the airlines” at a time when the economy is in doldrums and “rampant privatisation spree” .
He raised six points, including questioning the decision to lift the caps placed on airfares, not having any strategy to deal with the “massive dip in the number of flights flown” with Go First going bust and SpiceJet slowing down operations. He asked, “The pricing algorithm will keep pushing the price up in cases of a high demand-supply mismatch. Does the government have any concrete intervention planned to check these airfares?” He also alleged that the profits earned by private airport operators, especially “Adani with its mega investment in airports, is coming out of the pockets of the common man.”
‘In the pink of health’
Mr. Scindia issued a pointed rebuttal to Mr. Venugopal’s allegations, calling him “undiscerning and ill-informed.” The Civil Aviation Minister asserted that Indian economy is “in the pink of health”. “Even as the global economy continues to struggle, ours continues to stand as a beacon of hope with a growth rate of 6%–6.5% in FY 2023–24. That said, there is no reason that a deregulated sector like aviation should be put under government control — the repercussions of which have been known to dent the growth potential of this sector in the past,” he said.
He also claimed that the routes on which Go First operated have already been allotted to different airlines. On the issue of demand-supply gap, he pointed out to sharp rise in passenger count, which, he said, stood at 122 million in 2014 is currently at 280 million — a jump of 130%! “We have advised airlines to self-regulate their fares under a certain limit — the result of which is that prices have come down by 14%-60% since June 6, 2023,” Mr. Scindia added.
To Mr. Venugopal’s allegation on high taxes on ATF fuel that is pushing up the costs, Mr. Scindia blamed the State governments for it. “In 2021, we had only 12 States and union territories that were charging VAT on ATF between 0-5% range, today 28 States and union territories are under this category, and 3 States and union territories under 20%. It is mostly the non-BJP State governments which continue to charge VAT on ATF of more than 23%. This continues to stand as a hurdle for increased connectivity in the respective States,” he said. He reiterated the BJP government’s claim that it was under their regime that air travel had been “truly democratised.”
In the latest rebuttal to this debate that began on Saturday and extended over Sunday night, Mr. Venugopal, in a fresh tweet said, “Hard facts and everyday suffering of the middle class cannot be wished away by distorting figures and misrepresenting the actual facts on the ground.”
Unemployment records
On the question of economy, Mr. Venugopal pointed out that the unemployment records are at 23%, 23 crore people pushed into poverty, and 80 crore Indians rely on the government for food security. The economic growth is only “of, for and by the rich”, he said.
“The middle class continues to suffer under the twin attacks of unemployment and crippling price rise, compounded by your hands-off approach to regulating prices in the aviation sector as well. Take the example of Kannur airport’s current schedule, which stipulates 252 monthly Go First flights. However, not a single flight has been replaced after Go First went bust,” Mr. Veugopal said.
Similarly, he pointed out that at the Pune airport, 30% slots are vacant due to the Go First crisis and SpiceJet’s poor performance.
Reinforcing his point on airport operators earning huge profits, he said, “In March 2023 itself, airlines had written to the AERA claiming that Adani-owned airports are proposing exorbitant tariffs, especially through high landing and parking charges at Lucknow, Ahmedabad and Mangalore airports.”
