Jet Airways debacle seems to be a scam: Anand Sharma

Panaji (Goa) [India], Apr 21 (ANI): Senior Congress leader Anand Sharma on Sunday said that the Jet Airways debacle seemed to be a "scam", taking place in the run-up to the elections and also asked the Supreme Court to intervene in the matter.
"I can smell and see it is a big scam. The collapse of Jet Airways appears to be a scam which was well thought out and was being executed in the name of elections so that nobody will ask questions to the concerned authorities," Sharma said at a press conference here.
Thousands of employees of Jet Airways have been rendered jobless after the airline's decision to cease all operations owing to a huge accumulation of debt and falling revenue.
Sharma also demanded that the matter be "re-investigated" and criminal responsibility should be fixed for "ruining thousands of jobs".
He also added that the centre had in the past saved other businesses, which had huge amounts of debts by restructuring them and pondered as to why was the government not keen on doing the same in the case of Jet.
"The central government had rescued other businesses by re-structuring debts to the tune of Rs 30,000-40,000 crore. Compared to this, the amount (debt) of Jet Airways is much smaller. Moreover, there was a resolution (accepted) by the lenders to save jobs and the airline," Sharma said.
Sharma also added that BJP's manifesto was a box full of lies and BJP should apologise to the Indian voters for destroying the faith bestowed on them by the youth and farmers of the country.
"They owe an apology to the youth, to the farmers for betraying their trust. BJP's Sankalp Patra (manifesto) is an insult to the wisdom of the Indian voters when you have violated the 2014 pledge how can you come up with another one. They need to apologise to the Indian voter for betraying their trust," Sharma said.
He also accused the government of abusing powers bestowed on the central government machinery, powers given to the Prime Minister and institutions like Income Tax and investigative agencies.
"It has never happened in a democracy that from Tamil Nadu to Kolkata to Uttar Pradesh, raids are being conducted at the houses of prominent leaders of political parties who are in the opposition. These raids will definitely have an impact on the fairness of the elections," he said.
Terming these to be a grave threat to the Indian democracy, Sharma said: "Congress is the party which has been resisting these forces. After 5 years, the Prime Minister should be asked to answer for his failures, but he is deflecting them on to the opposition parties."
He also said that Congress didn't need any certificate of patriotism from Modi or BJP and they don't even have a right to grant one while adding that his party had fought terrorism and protected the integrity of the nation like no one else had. (ANI)