Subramanian Swamy calls AirAsia India deal fraudulent, writes to PM

Janata Party President Subramanian Swamy, who had been vocal about his criticism of the Jet-Etihad deal, on Tuesday, wrote a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singhsaying the FIPB clearance was “not legally valid”, terming the deal as a fraudulent one.

Swamy haswritten the letter to the Prime Minister pointing out an intelligence report on Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) impact on National security.

“It is the duty of the Opposition to bring the corruption to public records. The Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) would have cleared the project, had I not written that letter,” Swamy told CNN-IBN.

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Swamy said that AirAsia deal needs to be re-examined as it it is a ‘fraudulent one’ andsaid that the Yechury committee has also raised questions of irregularities.

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“It is clearly an attempt to cause a collapse of many of our domestic airlines, creating a systemic risk for financial institutions, loss to public exchequer and a vital gap in the country’s infrastructure,” he said in a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

He urged the Prime Minister to “revoke this impugned fraudulent Air Asia deal”, warning he would approach the courts through a Public Interest Litigation if no such action was taken.

Subramanian Swamy has not received any response to his letter yet.

“I came at a time when it appeared that this deal was going to go through and Mr Chidambaram seems to be hell bent to clear it,” he told CNN-IBN.

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Malaysia’s AirAsia, the largest budget carrier in Asia, plans to launch a regional airline in India. The new airline, AirAsia India, will be managed by the Malaysian company and will be based in Chennai. AirAsia will hold a 49 per ent stake in the joint venture with the third partner being Telestra Tradeplace.

India’s aviation industry, which has seen continued losses due to high operating costs and regulatory uncertainty, was opened to foreign investors in September, 2012. Foreign carriers are now able to purchase up to 49 per cent of local airlines.

A few weeks ago, Swamy had written a similar letter on the Jet-Etihad deal demanding a review of government clearance to it.