NEW DELHI: The shareholders' agreement and Operation, Management and Development Agreement (OMDA) signed on Tuesday between the Airports Authority of India (AAI) and the group of private companies that hold the rights to develop Delhi and Mumbai airports has come in for sharp criticism from the Communist Party of India (Marxist).

In a statement, the CPI(M) Polit Bureau said the Government's decision to go ahead with the privatisation of the two airports by signing the agreements was a violation of the National Common Minimum Programme (NCMP), and a breach of its assurance to AAI employees to discuss all issues pertaining to modernisation of airports in a Government-AAI-employees tripartite committee.

The Polit Bureau warned that the Government "alone will be held responsible for the consequences of the course that it has adopted".

According to the statement, the agreements signed on Tuesday made a mockery of transparency as it took place at a time when charges of irregularity were still under judicial scrutiny. The agreements violated two promises made in the NCMP, the statement said.

Apart from moving away from the promise that "generally profit making companies will not be privatised," the Polit Bureau said another NCMP commitment had been broken — that "all privatisation will be considered on a transparent and consultative case-by-case basis".

The CPI also reacted similarly with national secretary D. Raja pointing out that there was no consensus within the tripartite committee over many of the contentious issues.

The Left, he said, was not opposed to modernisation of airports per se but to the manner in which privatisation was being brought in through the backdoor in the name of modernising airports.

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