BIDIS is the last thing one would associate with the savvy and sophisticated Union Minister for Civil Aviation. But bidi king of Vidarbha Praful Patel counts Bidi No 27 as the mainstay of his Rs 1,100-crore empire. He is superstitious about the number 27 — both his Delhi and Mumbai cell phones end with 27 while his personal fleet of luxury and vintage cars include this double digit in the number plates.
The hugely successful and wealthy industrialist from Gondia in Maharashtra is today seen as the most visible face of the open skies, of the fast track reforms in the aviation sector, of the almost revolutionary paradigm shift in both flying and infrastructure detailing.
These are not necessarily Patel’s contributions during the last four years of his stewardship of the civil aviation ministry; that he is able to take the credit for the entire aviation revolution speaks volumes for his management and communication skills coupled with excellent public relations and a strong grasp of the subject.
In several polls conducted over the last four years by media houses, Patel has emerged as one of the top five performing Ministers in the Manmohan Singh Council of Ministers, outrunning his mentor, philosopher and guide Sharad Pawar. In the eyes of the public, a plethora of options and a number of airlines to choose from is equal to good governance and good ministership.
Facile? Maybe. And this leads to the all-important question of whether at the fundamental level he has been able to achieve anything substantive or it’s just a lot of hot air. While reforms were begun by the late Madhavrao Scindia during his years as Civil Aviation Minister in the Rajiv Gandhi era, it was Scindia who brought in the concept of open skies, allowing private players to step in and granting licences to Jet Airways, Sahara, the Damanias and others.
The second round of licences was given by the NDA government when it was in power. This included Air Deccan, Spicejet, Indigo and Kingfisher. But many of them, including Kingfisher and Indigo, started operations only after the UPA and Patel came to power in 2004.
As far as Kingfisher and Jet Airways owners — the flamboyant Vijay Mallya and Naresh Goel — are concerned, Patel is a personal friend who parties on the Mallya yacht, uses his private plane and flies to London to have lunch with Goel.
There have been plenty of charges of crony capitalism with some senior bureaucrats voicing apprehensions that Patel has helped the private players instead of the state-owned Air India and Indian Airlines, particularly when it came to denying Indian Airlines permission to operate abroad until it had augmented its fleet. He has been given credit for facilitating the merger of Sahara Airlines with Jet Airways.
His greatest advantage has been that he has been able to ride on the 30-40 per cent year on year growth in aviation. To his credit, he has been able to give a paradigm shift to aviation if not in flying, at least in infrastructure. But for his persistence, Delhi and Mumbai airports would not have been privatized, though privatization for Hyderabad and Bangalore were cleared during the NDA regime. Patel is now pushing for privatization of 35 non-metro airports, which may in the final analysis be his biggest contribution.
The much-needed Airport Economic Regulatory Authority is also in the pipeline and is currently before the Standing Committee for Civil Aviation. Patel had himself been a member of the Committee for the last 16 years, having developed an early passion for the subject combined with knowledge and understanding. His interest was kick-started in his youth with his father, Mohanbhai Patel, owning a Cessna. Though Patel does not have a pilot’s licence, he has logged flying hours and his interest has only grown over the years.
Long before that, his birth was a matter of great celebration with Mohanbhai marrying for the third time before Patel junior came into the world. A little known Bollywood director even made a film on him, Nanhe Praful Kumar. But Mohanbhai, a major industrialist in Gondia, also dabbled in politics — he was chairman of the Gondia municipality, an MLA and treasurer of the Bombay Congress. In that sense, Patel inherited both his business and political genes from his father who was a major influence though he died when the nanhe Praful was only 16.
The other major influences were Vasantdada Patil, who first offered him a ticket, Rajiv Gandhi, who gave him a Lok Sabha ticket and brought him to the Lok Sabha, and — the biggest — Maratha sugar daddy Sharad Pawar whom he calls Saheb and whom he consults about all major decisions, including those related to civil aviation. It is a relationship which has grown over the years and, after the exit of Suresh Kalmadi from Pawar’s coterie, Patel is by all reckoning the most powerful of Pawar’s men.
As far as Kingfisher and Jet owners
Mallya and Goel are concerned, Patel is
a friend who parties on Mallya’s yacht,
and flies to London to lunch with Goel
Blessed with an exceptional temperament and a more than helpful nature, Patel has also consolidated his relationships with Finance Minister P Chidambaram, Deputy Planning Commission Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and even Congress President Sonia Gandhi. Many a times he acts as the bridge between her and Pawar. These relationships have helped him to get decisions regarding his ministry cleared without too many roadblocks. Pawar also helps him with his networking.
Patel also has excellent relations with the bureaucracy,treating civil servants with courtesy and dignity — be it former Civil Aviation Secretary Ajay Prasad or the current one, Ashok Chawla. But, unlike several Ministers, he does not let the officials drive his agenda or lead him by the nose, though he does give them freedom to operate in their spheres.
But the biggest problem that the most travelled Minister (he is on the move almost every day) in the UPA government is facing is the merger of Air-India and Indian. The question is, how can two loss-making organizations convert into a giant money-making one? Interestingly, nobody knows why he has been pushing so hard for the merger. As late as March 2006, he was on record opposing it. But, to his credit, he fast-tracked the acquisition of aircraft for the two airlines — a decision pending for years.
Though Patel was catapulted into the hurly-burly of the business world as early as 16, when his father died and he had to miss school to look after the business, he is seen today as a politician with a modern mind coupled with a corporate mind open to new ideas, constantly innovating and looking for new avenues. A far cry from many middle-of-the-road politicians who have remained prisoners of their past.
As a businessman, Patel heads the CeeJay Group which has interests in bidis, pharmaceuticals, real estate, packaging, finance and oil and employs over 60,000 people. His personal wealth ensures that he does not draw a salary from the government but travels in any one of more than 20 luxury cars. His charitable trusts run over 40 schools in Maharashtra, providing education to 80,000 students.
While bidis and a privileged background coupled with a luxurious lifestyle have ensured that Patel as a Minister is seen as squeaky clean, politically he has miles to go before he catches up with mentors like Vasantdada Patil and Pawar and becomes a major political player in his own right in his home state. The journey would have to begin with winning his Lok Sabha constituency rather than the back-door politics of the Rajya Sabha.
The last four years at Rajiv Gandhi Bhawan have shown the potential and calibre of Patel as a Minister who knows what he wants and goes after it. As he told party colleague and friend DP Tripathi the day he was sworn in as Minister, “As a Minister I don’t need to make money but I want to show I can do something. If at any time you feel I am doing anything wrong, don’t hesitate to tell me.” And DPT, as he is known, has been doing that from time to time.
Renu Mittal
Renu Mittal is a veteran Journalist of India. She has been reporting on the Congress Party affairs since 1983.
