JEDDAH, 23 August 2006 — Indian National League (INL) leader P.M.A. Salam has urged the federal aviation minister in New Delhi to allow foreign airline companies such as Saudia to operate flights to Calicut from the Gulf in order to end the suffering of passengers traveling to the city as a result of Air-India’s negligence.
“Indian Muslim Cultural Center, an offshoot of INL, recently organized a march to Calicut airport to protest Air-India’s irresponsible and unfair attitude toward passengers and lodged a petition to the chief minister to take quick action,” said Salam, who was here to perform Umrah.
He accused Air-India of operating old aircraft to the Gulf sector despite the fact that this profit-making sector was offsetting the company’s losses in other international routes.
“The only solution for this recurrent problem is the operation of foreign airlines to Calicut and other airports,” he said.
He said a number of airline companies including Saudi Arabian Airlines, Qatar Airways and Gulf Air were awaiting approval from the federal Civil Aviation Ministry to operate flights to Calicut, a business city in Kerala.
Keralites account for 60 percent of 1.6 million Indian workers in Saudi Arabia.
Salam, who was the first INL candidate to win a seat in the Kerala Assembly, said he would raise the problems facing Gulf passengers at the legislative body’s next session. He hoped that the state government would pressure the aviation ministry to expedite operation of foreign airlines to Calicut.
In a wide-ranging interview with Arab News, Salam opposed the Congress-led central government’s move to renovate a makeshift temple in Ayodhya using taxpayers’ money and said it would tarnish the country’s secular image. “The Congress party is creating another issue to make political gains. Even the (Hindu-revivalist) BJP party has not initiated such a thing during their five-year rule,” he said.
He downplayed recent police raids at offices and libraries of some Muslim organizations in Kerala, saying the media exaggerated the security measure carried out after terror threats.
He suspected the hands of opposition parties and extremist groups in overplaying the raids through the media. He urged the government to take corrective steps to remove Muslim concerns and prevent opponents from fishing in the troubled waters.
On the controversy concerning the new education bill, Salam said only those people who wanted to do business with educational institutions were opposing the bill. He allayed the fears of minorities about the bill and said it would not affect their rights but help poor students get more seats at professional colleges.
He said INL would stand for its declared objectives and work relentlessly for the protection of minorities’ rights. Salam, who worked in the Kingdom for 10 years, won the recent assembly election with a record majority of 14,000 votes from Calicut constituency. He said the historic victory would strengthen the party.
