Allowing Vistara to bid for Air India would be foolish: Subramaniam Swamy

New Delhi: A day after Vistara Chairman Bhaskar Bhat said that it is evaluating bidding for Air India, Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy has said that it would be foolish on the part of the Ministry of Civil Aviation to allow Vistara to bid.

Swamy in a tweet cited an ongoing case against the company in the Delhi High Court and went on to call Vistara an “illegal airline”.

“It is ridiculous for Vistara to bid for Air India. Vistara is an illegal airline and there an ongoing case in the Delhi High Court on a PIL filed by me. In that its partner, TATA is under CBI & ED probe. I hope MoCA does not foolishly allow them to participate,” Swamy tweeted.

Bhat on Monday said that the airline is evaluating to bid for the national carrier Air India. He added no decision has been taken so far and only after the evaluation is complete, the company would decide on bidding in the disinvestment process.

The government in January restarted the divestment process of Air India and invited bids for selling 100 percent of its equity in the state-owned airline, including Air India’s 100 percent shareholding in AI Express Ltd. and 50 percent in Air India SATS Airport Services Private Ltd.

After its unsuccessful bid to sell Air India in 2018, the government this time has decided to offload its entire stake. In 2018, it had offered to sell its 76 percent stake in the airline.

Of the total debt of Rs 60,074 crore as of March 31, 2019, the buyer would be required to absorb Rs 23,286 crore. (IANS)

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