'Sycophants at airport terminal opening'

CHENNAI: Janata Party president Subramaninan Swamy strongly condemned the Airports Authority of India (AAI) for brazen display of sycophancy in the proposed inauguration of the new airport terminal building at Madurai on September 12. He said the list of guests of honour for the occasion included mainly the Congress-DMK leaders.In a statement, he said the AAI, in a display of narrow partisanship, has sought to curry favour with the Congress-DMK personages and reduced the occasion to a cheap show.He recalled that the new airport terminal was first proposed by him in 1998 as an MP representing Madurai. “It was accepted by the NDA government in 2001 when Sharad Yadav was civil aviation minister. Record of parliamentary proceedings proves this,” he pointed out.“Thereafter I proposed and got the Centre to accept that the airport should be named as Muthuramalinga Thevar (freedom fighter and an associate of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose) International Airport,” he added.Swamy said the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the civil aviation ministry officials agreed and Cabinet gave assent to his proposal recently. Yet, there is no announcement of renaming, Swamy said and added this because the leaders do not wish to displease the local anti-Thevar chieftains of the Congress and DMK, who never liked Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose.