Airport Authority Employees Hold Huge Rally

In Mumbai Against Privatisation

P R Krishnan

FOUR MPs of the Left Front jointly addressed a huge rally of the Airport Authority employees in Mumbai on March 3, 2005 to extend support to the ongoing struggle against privatisation of this Premier Public Sector Institution of the country. It was the Santacruz Airport Complex at Mumbai which became the venue of this meeting. Organized by AAI Employees Joint Forum, the afternoon rally of the employees was 2000 strong. The four members of Parliament whom the Joint Forum invited for their mamath rally were Chittabratta Majumdar, the CITU general secretary, Basudeo Acharya leader of the CPI(M) group in Parliament, Dipankar Mukherjee, CITU secretary and Abani Roy of the Revolutionary Socialist Party. The organizers had also invited representatives of other trade Union organisations for their meeting.

Addressing the huge gathering of airport authority employees, Chittabrata Majumdar MP and general secretary of CITU said that “the public sector industries in India started taking shape immediately after independence. It was with the peoples might and money that the public sector has been built up. It grew up and spread all over the country during Nehru’s time. The Left and progressive forces had conducted many struggles for the establishment of public sector industries and for nationalization of airports, banks, insurance etc. The Nehru government at that time did not approach imperialist camp for help. Nevertheless the socialist camp readily came to help our country to build up industries in the key strategical sectors. It is this assets of the nation that the previous BJP led government began dismantling. It is sad that instead of protecting, the Present UPA government has also embarked upon selling off this national wealth to the capitalists. The attempts of the government to increase foreign direct investment in this key sector is harmful to the national interest. So also privatisation. Just as the left parties in the country fought for the creation of Public Sector during 50s and 60s, the Left parties and the left trade union movement in the country will strongly oppose any move of the UPA government to privatize the airports” said Chittabratta Majumdar. He congratulated the employees for launching agitation against privatisation of airports and against foreign direct investment in this strategically important field. The CITU leader however cautioned the employees against disruptive tactics of the management and said they should try for and maintain wider unity in their struggle.

Basudeo Acharya, the leader of communist Group in parliament while greeting Airport employees pledged full support to their struggle. Acharya said the left parties stood for protection of Public Sector industries. He lashed out against the government move to increase foreign direct investment and said “we will never allow privatisation of airports and other public sector industries.” Dipankar Mukherjee in his speech pointed out several example of misdeeds and corruption involved in the sell off dealings of the public sector industries. The nearby Centaur Hotel sell off is a glaring example. Mukherjee said that the left party MPs will continue their fight against privatisation in parliament and organize protest agitations outside parliament. Abani Roy the RSP MP from West Bengal said that the left front is firmly of the view that any move to privatize airport is anti-people and anti-national. Hence we are totally opposed to this.

It seems that the UPA government and particularly the Civil Aviation Ministry has scant respect for the sentiments of the people. It was therefore heartening to note that right from sweepers to the top officers in the airport sector, all are united against privatisation. A large number of the participants in the meeting were officers. Similarly a substantial number of those attended were female employees. It was N K Ghoshal, Convenor, Airport Authority of India Employees Joint Forum, who started the meeting. He explained the background of the various representations made to the government. The other speakers who addressed the meeting were P R Krishnan, Maharashtra state CITU secretary, Bhooshan Patil of Nava Sheva Bunder Kamgar Union, suman Gaikwad of RPI, Y P Gautam, Jt. Convenor, G S Officers Association, GMV Nayak of Public Sector Employees Coordination Committee, N Haridasan of NRMU, Naresh Lal of Air Corporation Employees Union, Kapoor of Air India Employees and Kiran Polekar from Shipping Corporation. Anant Samant conducted the proceedings and Nithin Jadhav welcomed the gathering.