Veteran Congress
leader Shashi Tharoor on Saturday backed the Central government’s decision to lease out the
Thiruvananthapuram airport to Adani Enterprises, saying privatisation will help
expand its potential and attract investors.  

Tharoor had earlier
received criticism from his own party and other parties for his favouring the Centre’s decision.

Undeterred by his
critics, however, the Congress MP took to Twitter and said, “It is about
expanding the potential of the airport to its fullest, there by providing a
better facility to businesses & locals & attracting investors.”

His tweet came after
state finance minister Issac Thomas said that Tharoor was “vocal for
primitive accumulation of corporates in contemporary India.”

“Sashi Tharoor so
eloquent against primitive accumulation of British in India but so vocal for
primitive accumulation of corporates in contemporary India. When we have
successful model of CIAL in Kochi why does Tharoor consider Adani is
indispensable for TVM?#airportprivatisation,” Thomas wrote on Twitter.

He also criticised the
Centre for the privatisation, saying the “People of Kerala will not
accept this act of brazen cronyism.”

Tharoor said that the
Airports Authority of India (AAI) receives Rs 2,500 annually from the Delhi and
Mumbai airports.

“But since you mention
revenue, in Delhi airport, @GMR agreed to give 46% revenue share to @AAI_Official,
a huge amount the Govt had never made before. Today for Mumbai and Delhi
airports, AAI gets 2500 crores yearly.”

“And for
Thiruvananthapuram, there are the additional benefits of attracting businesses
to our city that are now deterred by our poor (& worsening) air
connectivity. The spinoff benefits in employment & income generation will
also increase the state govt’s tax revenues,” Tharoor tweeted.  

On Wednesday, the
Union government approved the leasing of Jaipur, Guwahati and
Thiruvananthapuram airports through a public-private partnership for a period
of 50 years, as reported by PTI.

In February 2019, Adani
Enterprises had bagged the rights to operate six airports, Lucknow, Ahmedabad,
Jaipur, Mangaluru, Thiruvananthapuram, and Guwahati, through the PPP model following
a competitive bidding process.

The CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) and the Congress-led
United Democratic Front (UDF) had opposed the move and Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan on August 20 called for its withdrawal.

Meanwhile, Tharoor
backed the Centre’s decision, saying “a private entity running the operations
competitively is the only way this airport could flourish.”

However, Congress’ state
chief Mullappally Ramachandran had rebuked Tharoo’s stance, saying no one
should support a corporate giant and that the privatisation of the airport was “deplorable”.