Lost ground

In his column called 8216;Stop Politics of Vendetta8217; July 26 ,2003 journalist turned politician and member of the Rajya Sabha, Raje...

In his column called 8216;Stop Politics of Vendetta8217; July 26 ,2003 journalist turned politician and member of the Rajya Sabha, Rajeev Shukla targeted the V P Singh government for its decision to ground the Airbus 320 fleet more than a decade ago.

He also accused the CBI for filing corruption charges against the Rajiv Gandhi government. Shukla wants the Vajpayee government to initiate a probe against those who decided to ground the fleet, causing the nation a loss of 200 crores.

The CBI submitted its final report to the Court seeking permission to close the case because of lack of co-operation from the French manufacturers of the airbus. Second, a crucial file on the correspondence between the civil aviation ministry and the airbus industries, Indian Airlines and I.A.E the US engine-makers for the aircraft, disappeared. After the V P Singh government, the investigation of the case was kept in the cold storage until a public interest litigation petition was filed. Shukla should8217;ve checked facts before passing a harsh judgement.

The V P Singh government assumed office in November 1989 and the decision to ground the fleet and to register a case was taken in February 8217;90. The immediate provocation was the crash of an A 320 aircraft in Bangalore in February 8217;90.

From the very beginning, there were doubts about the aircraft8217;s reliability. In October 1988, the Indian Commercial Pilot8217;s Association had written to the government that there was no infrastructure for the aircraft8217;s maintenance in the country.

Before this8212;in June 8217;888212; an A 320 aircraft on test flight had crashed at the Paris airshow. In August 8217;83, a seven-members committee headed by Air Marshal Dilbar Singh had recommended purchase of 12 wide-bodied Boeing 757 aircraft and in June 8217;84, the Boeing was issued with a letter of intent.

But there was a somersault later and on the basis of an unsolicited offer from the airbus industries, the decision to opt for A 320 aircraft was taken in a hurry. A CBI case was registered against public servants, including then secretary civil aviation, Dr S S Sidhu, also under investigation for his role in the submarine deal.

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But investigation hit a block the moment the government changed in November 8217;90. But we held our ground firmly in this case as in others such as St Kitt8217;s8212;as a result I was shunted out of CBI.

I decided to fight and went up to the Supreme Court, accusing the then government of malafide and vindictiveness. In 8217;96-8217;97, the Supreme Court decided to monitor the progress of sensitive cases and gave an order providing autonomy to CBI and CVC.

The author is former joint director, CBI