You cannot hide behind advisories: Venugopal slams Scindia over high airfares

Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia should take concrete action to control rising airfares rather than "hiding behind" advisories and quoting "random figures", Congress leader K C Venugopal said on Tuesday, firing a fresh salvo in the war of words between them.

Venugopal and Scindia have been sparring on Twitter since Sunday over the state of the aviation sector.

On Monday, the minister hit back at the Congress general secretary (organisation), saying he was "cherry-picking" facts to attack the BJP government while forgetting the "step-brotherly" treatment meted out to civil aviation during the UPA rule.

Tagging Scindia's long Twitter post from Monday, Venugopal tweeted that this entire "flight price fiasco" is unravelling the "criminal extent" to which the Ministry of Civil Aviation "neglected" passenger welfare and the aviation sector.

Also Read | Spot airfares rise up to three times on busiest routes

"The more we dive deeper, the greater the mess we see. You have opened a Pandora’s box, @JM_Scindia ji," he said.

As per the ministry's own affidavit in the Jet Airways insolvency case, airport slots are neither assets nor rights of the airline, but mere permissions granted on a 'use it or lose it' basis, Venugopal said.

"In 2020, then MoS Civil Aviation @HardeepSPuri ji, in response to a Parliamentary Question, stated that Jet Airways slots were being reallocated on a temporary basis. In this case as well, if GoFirst is not using its slots, these must be allocated to other airlines on a temporary basis. Why is the govt treating the GoFirst crisis differently?" he said.

Venugopal also termed "laughable" Scindia's assertion that the AERA (Airports Economic Regulatory Authority of India) is an independent body.

Venugopal said the AERA is run by a sitting IAS officer and its other officers are appointed by the government, which also determine its budget.

Is it independent in the same way that the ED, CBI and IT Dept are independent, the Congress leader asked.

"You conveniently skipped the part where it was the Modi government itself which hiked the excise on ATF (Aviation Turbine Fuel) from 8 per cent to 14 per cent, before scaling it back to 11 per cent. When ATF constitutes nearly half the cost of operating an aircraft, these seemingly small changes make a huge impact," Venugopal said in his tweet on Tuesday, hitting out at Scindia.

"You cannot hide behind advisories which have no legal bearing and quote random figures that fly in the face of exorbitant prices faced by consumers on a daily basis. Unless you take concrete action, and not create paper tigers, this crisis will not be solved," the Congress general secretary said.

Hitting back at Scindia for his criticism of the UPA government's handling of the aviation sector, Venugopal said that as far as the growth of the aviation sector under the UPA is concerned, the number of Indians travelling by flights grew from 30.3 million on 2003-04 to 91.8 million in 2010-11.

He said there was a 300 per cent increase, facilitated by historically high levels of economic growth and the creation of the Indian middle class.

"It was during the UPA era that low cost travel boomed, with the rise of Indigo, Spice Jet and Go Air (then a flourishing venture), along with the expansion of existing airlines, which ensured the Indian middle class took flights for the first time," Venugopal said.

"However, the Modi government's hollow PR is for all to see: As per the Ministry’s own admission to the Parliamentary Standing Committee in Feb 2022, only 22 out of 94 UDAN routes are in operation. The Shivamogga airport’s inauguration alone cost 21 crore, because PM Modi was cutting the ribbon himself," he said.

The death of Jet Airways, the ongoing struggles of SpiceJet for many years, and now this GoFirst saga are all testament to the complete mismanagement of the aviation sector by the Modi regime, he alleged.

Venugopal in a tweet Sunday had 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.

Hitting back at Venugopal, Scindia on Monday had said, "@kcvenugopalmp Ji continues to cherry-pick facts, and forgets the step-brotherly treatment given to civil aviation during the UPA Govt rule."

"FYI, here's what a hands-on approach looks like: there has been an increase in fares, mostly, for routes that were earlier being serviced by GoFirst. The Ministry not only took cognisance of the issue quickly, but also intervened by sending strict advisories to airlines to self-regulate fares. The DGCA is closely monitoring the same. Fares have reduced by up to 60 per cent, and are likely to decline further," the minister said in a long Twitter post.