The right hand talks of airport upgrade in Kolkata, Left says strike

By evening, in fact, over 1,000 applications for a “mass casual leave” on September 27 were submitted to AAI officials in Kolkata and a general body meeting was held outside the Netaji Subash Chandra Bose International Airport building at Dum Dum.

Didn’t this send the contradictory signal? Said Basu: ‘‘I cannot deny them (the workers) of the right to strike.’’

The striking leaders said the ‘‘casual leave’’ would ground all flights and operations at the airport: fire-services will not turn up, air traffic control officials will be absent, communication and ground staff will stay awat.

‘‘But we cannot help,’’ said Dipankar Ghosh, general secretary of the AAI Employees Union and an executive committee member of the forum set up to block airport privatisation. ‘‘We simply cannot accept that the UPA is doing the same thing as the NDA.’’

Ask them about their politics. ‘‘Ours is a non-political body,’’ said Shiv Nath Seal, one of the leaders, “though we receive patronage and support from Left leaders.”

The AAI Employees Union, backed by the Left in West Bengal, has the sole bargaining capacity with AAI authorities and an ‘‘all-India’’ clout. In states where the Left is not powerful, the AAI Employees Union leadership, sources said, is largely “exported” from Kolkata. The strategy has worked out fine. The agitating unions have a 26,000-strong support base across the country’s airports.

However, Civil Aviation Minister Patel was hopeful that a showdown could be avoided when the two sides meet in Mumbai tomorrow. “I am confident that there will be a way out tomorrow,” he said. ‘‘Should the talks fail, the AAI was fully geared to run normal services,’’ he said.

Patel said there were elaborate plans for improving Kolkata’s domestic as well as international airport. A new international terminus is to come up and there will be capacity enhancement and augmentation of traffic.