Niti Ayog acting like private sector spokesperson: Report

Criticising Niti Aayog for recommending the privatisation of Air India "without any basis", a parliamentary panel said the government's policy think tank is acting like a spokesperson for the private sector.

It also said that the arguments cited by Niti Ayog for privatising the national carrier are "childish".

These remarks are part of the 'Revised Draft Report on Proposed Disinvestment of Air India', which the BJP members in the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture claim has already been rejected by the panel.

Opposition members, however, claim that the report is back in the business of the committee.

In a January meeting, in which committee chairman Derek O'Brien was not present, BJP members claimed that the panel had withdrawn the contentious report that argued against disinvestment of the national carrier.

The meeting was chaired by BJP MP Rakesh Singh in the absence of O'Brien, a leading voice of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, amid Opposition MPs walking out against the move.

However, in a meeting on February 20, Opposition MPs once again raised the issue and grilled Ministry of Civil Aviation officials. They claimed the report was back on the committee's table.

According to the draft, Niti Aayog is "acting as a spokesperson of the private sector and recommended for privatisation of Air India without providing any basis or rationale".

It noted that the think tank "simply said government should not be in airline business when there are private airlines all round. Probably it is a childish argument, if we extend the theory to many other sectors of the functioning of the government, we may have to close down many institutions of national importance".

In one of the sections in the draft, titled '11 reasons why the national carrier should not be disinvested', the panel has also asked whether there are any documents or studies about the basis of Niti Ayog's recommendations.

The draft report also  talks about the reasoning given by Niti Ayog, which includes fragile finances of the airline. It has also said Air India with 14% market share is not a strategic or priority business for the government.

The Union Cabinet had last June gave an in-principle approval for disinvestment in Air India. A Group of Ministers led by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is working on the contours of the process.