No fancy jets for our Ministers please, we’re pro-poor UPA

With an aging fleet of Avros and just two overstretched Boeings for Ministers and VVIPs, last year the NDA Government ordered five executive...

With an aging fleet of Avros and just two overstretched Boeings for Ministers and VVIPs, last year the NDA Government ordered five executive jets from Brazilian firm Embraer. But the UPA Government is determined to rob its flock of this flying start.

Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee has asked for details on the Rs 690-crore deal and is looking at a review, if not a rollback. Speaking to The Indian Express, he said: ‘‘This is an absolutely infructuous expense. What is the need for Ministers to fly around in jets?’’

Officials said that the Minister has indicated that if it was difficult to scrap the contract and if payments had been made, the jets would be accepted by the MoD but will be put to uses other than flying around Cabinet Ministers.

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Mukherjee said that key Cabinet Ministers like the Home Minister used BSF aircraft and the Defence Minister himself was eligible to use an IAF plane. ‘‘I have been a Cabinet Minister for full 14 years and would not have used special aircraft more than 14 times in all. There is no need for such extravagant expenditure on Ministers,’’ he said.

The Embraer orders came after a Cabinet meeting was held to discuss the purchase of special aircraft for the Prime Minister and President. While that order has yet not been finalised, senior Cabinet Ministers felt that there was a need for the Government to purchase planes for the exclusive use of top Ministers.

Why Embraer wasn’t all about luxury

		• Two 21-yr-old Boeing 737s fly President, VP, Prime Minister, DPM, Defence Minister and three Service chiefs. • No Cabinet minister can use these without PMO OK. • The proposal of purchase of VVIP jets was moved by Indian Air Force more than 14 years ago and not during NDA government’s tenure. • IAF has also 10 Avro HS 748 turbo prop planes for VVIP duties. These planes are 30 years old and take five hours from Delhi to Chennai. Embraer takes two hours to Chennai.

Ritu Sarin

Ritu Sarin is Executive Editor (News and Investigations) at The Indian Express group. Her areas of specialisation include internal security, money laundering and corruption. Sarin is one of India’s most renowned reporters and has a career in journalism of over four decades. She is a member of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) since 1999 and since early 2023, a member of its Board of Directors. She has also been a founder member of the ICIJ Network Committee (INC). She has, to begin with, alone, and later led teams which have worked on ICIJ’s Offshore Leaks, Swiss Leaks, the Pulitzer Prize winning Panama Papers, Paradise Papers, Implant Files, Fincen Files, Pandora Papers, the Uber Files and Deforestation Inc. She has conducted investigative journalism workshops and addressed investigative journalism conferences with a specialisation on collaborative journalism in several countries. ... Read More

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