Thread by @leofsaldanha

bit.ly/3c29b2d
Over two decades ago, in a most unjust and technically unsound and illegal decision, @AAI_Official expanded @mlrairport . We warned of disastrous consequences. None listened. All the way to @DGCAIndia , Karnataka High Court and also Supreme Court. /1

This is what happened: bit.ly/3QVkEiO

Despite this disaster, the #airport has turned into a major international hub. And thanks to @narendramodi, it has been gifted to @gautam_adani 's Adani Group. /2

Like several other #ports, airports and public #infrastructure have been.

The lack of #transparency of such transfers notwithstanding, it is now immensely disturbing that Gautam Adani gets to decide and impose #UDF. /3

It is in no way different from the fleecing @iamashokkheny does with a small section of the Bangalore Mysore Infrastructure Corridor that his company Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprises built, owns and operates. /4

Challenge the fact that one pays the maximum per km on this road, compared with any stretch in India, Asia perhaps, and bang comes the reply: it was approved by @CMofKarnataka and his Cabinet. /5

In this lies a major lesson of #liberalisation and #privatisation: deep politics, not economic foresight, is the foundation of such deals (Also see: bit.ly/3T7ojf5). /6

The user and #tax payer (i.e. those who pay directly and everyone, including a kid who bought chocolates, who pays indirectly) is systemically exploited. /7

With the #Legislature and #Executive complicit in promoting such deals, and the wider public in a stupor, India is likely to run into massive debts, from which we might not easily recover. /8

Ask Gautam Adani, the most indebted person in India, he knows how he manages still to be the #2 wealthiest in the country.

This is #crony #capitalism at work. /9

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