Hyderabad: Congress leader and former Union Finance Minister P. Chidamabram on Thursday stepped up his attack on the Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government, calling it a complete failure in managing the current economic crisis in the country.
Talking to ETV Bharat, Chidambaram said: “When will the BJP government acknowledge the gravity of the deepening economic crisis in the country? When will the Prime Minister acknowledge his failure and the failure of his economic managers?”
Later, in a series of tweets, Chidambaram highlighted how India’s two major industries – telecom and aviation -- are now struggling to survive, especially after the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic stalled the country’s economic growth.
Referring to Vodafone Idea Ltd, Chidambaram said: “Will the government realize that one of our major telecom companies is on the verge of collapse and the government has no plan to save the struggling telecom industry?”
Vodafone Idea is currently fighting for survival as it struggles to raise money to pay dues relating to adjusted gross revenue (AGR) to the government. The company is supposed to pay Rs 58,254 crore as demanded by the department of telecommunications (DoT) and is posting massive losses quarter after quarter in order to clear this amount.
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Bharti Airtel chairman Sunil Mital, too, has expressed concerns over India’s telecom policy time and again. In a message to Airtel shareholders in its annual report for FY19-20 released on Tuesday, Mittal highlighted how long-standing legal disputes and regulatory levies are dragging down the performance of Indian telecom firms.
“It requires much more support to repair the deep damage to its finances and make it viable for telecom operators to invest in future technologies,” Mittal said.
Chidambaram also talked about the ailing aviation sector, saying: “Will the government realize that the aviation industry has suffered massive losses and every one of them will go the Air India way unless the government steps in with a rescue plan?”
“Millions have lost their jobs or livelihood in the last 12 months. The collapse of two major industries — telecom and aviation — will cost many more thousand direct and indirect jobs,” he added.
An already ailing aviation sector has been hit even harder as both domestic and international airline operations were halted by the Indian authorities after the covid-19 breakout. Though, operations have now resumed partially, but the sector is still dealing with poor passenger traffic.
According to aviation consultancy Capa India, the country’s aviation sector is likely to post massive losses of $3 billion-3.6 billion in the April-June quarter.
(ETV Bharat Report)
