Visakhapatnam: The next time the CPM reviles privatisation, it might brace itself for a mischievous counter-slogan: "We are on the same flight, comrades."
Prakash Karat and about a dozen other colleagues got up very early this morning to swallow their love for "national carrier" Air India and board a private budget airline's flight from Delhi to reach Visakhapatnam for the party congress.
The move, it transpired, has been dictated by economic prudence - something the hardliners in the party do not display when they insist that white elephants in the public sector should be preserved at any cost.
Unkind souls may suggest that the party is tightening its belt because of the dwindling electoral fortunes that eventually will get reflected on donations.
Exact figures couldn't be ascertained but while Air India charged Rs 9,000-plus for Delhi-Vizag tickets, CPM sources said, the comrades' IndiGo travel cost them a little over Rs 6,000 each.
S. Ramachandran Pillai, the oldest politburo member who is in the race to succeed Karat as general secretary, acknowledged that the ticket prices had dictated the choice of airline.
14/03/14 Telegraph
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Prakash Karat and about a dozen other colleagues got up very early this morning to swallow their love for "national carrier" Air India and board a private budget airline's flight from Delhi to reach Visakhapatnam for the party congress.
The move, it transpired, has been dictated by economic prudence - something the hardliners in the party do not display when they insist that white elephants in the public sector should be preserved at any cost.
Unkind souls may suggest that the party is tightening its belt because of the dwindling electoral fortunes that eventually will get reflected on donations.
Exact figures couldn't be ascertained but while Air India charged Rs 9,000-plus for Delhi-Vizag tickets, CPM sources said, the comrades' IndiGo travel cost them a little over Rs 6,000 each.
S. Ramachandran Pillai, the oldest politburo member who is in the race to succeed Karat as general secretary, acknowledged that the ticket prices had dictated the choice of airline.
14/03/14 Telegraph
