MVA, BJP leaders met Airbus, Tata reps before Centre inked deal

Even as the ruling and opposition parties continued to trade barbs over the ₹22,000-crore Tata-Airbus project coming up in Vadodara, it has come to light that the previous Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) as well as Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders had met representatives of the European defence major and the Indian conglomerate to bring the project to Maharashtra even before the Centre signed an agreement with M/s Airbus Defence and Space S.A., Spain in September 2021.

According to officials from the industries department, the state government evinced interest in the project, which involves the setting up of a production facility for C-295 transport aircraft for the Indian Air Force, when they came to know about it following the Bangalore Aero India aircraft exhibition held in February 2021.

A senior official from the industries department met representatives on at least two occasions to discuss the prospect of setting up the facility in Maharashtra. Then chief minister Uddhav Thackeray met Banmali Agrawala, president for infrastructure, defence and aerospace in Tata Sons, while Devendra Fadnavis, then leader of opposition, met national security advisor Ajit Kumar Doval as well as Tata Group chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran to hold informal discussions, officials confirmed.

“Though the relations between Thackeray and Fadnavis were not exactly cordial then, Fadnavis upon request by state officials lobbied for the project to come to Maharashtra. He was keen that the project should come to MIHAN, a special economic zone in Nagpur, as the presence of a few big-ticket projects would boost the Vidarbha region,” the officials referred to above, said. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity.

State industries minister Uday Samant, who has come under opposition fire ever since the announcement that the facility was to come up in Vadodara was made last week, said on Saturday that Fadnavis had made efforts to bring the project to Maharashtra.

“We were in talks with India head of Airbus, but it is the Central government that decides where the investment will go. According to the Airbus assessment, Nagpur was among the top locations for the project after Chennai (Tamil Nadu) and Hyderabad (Telangana) among others,” another official from the industries department who wished to remain anonymous, said.

The discussions took place before the agreement was signed between the Union ministry of defence and Airbus. After that, there were indications that the project would go to Gujarat and the efforts petered down.

The opposition parties however continued their attack against the government claiming this was the fourth big project that Maharashtra lost to Gujarat, after the mammoth $19.5 billion Vedanta-Foxconn semi-conductor plant that was slated to come up in Talegaon but eventually went to Gujarat. The Thackeray faction of Shiv Sena sought Samant’s resignation.

“This is the fourth project that went out of Maharashtra after Vedanta-Foxconn at Talegaon, bulk drug park at Raigad and medical devices park at Aurangabad,” party leader Aaditya Thackeray said. “In September, the industries minister told a news channel that he will bring the Airbus project to MIHAN. How come it went outside the state? Either he was lying or something has happened behind the scenes which we are not aware of.”

Aaditya also criticised chief minister Eknath Shinde without taking his name and said, “(…) Because of the betrayal and monstrous ambition of one person, Maharashtra is facing knocks in the last three to four months. They are focussing on low-level politics instead of investment and agriculture.”

Shinde on Saturday said that he was not going to respond to allegations and counter allegations.

“Some people are making allegations. Let them do it as they have no other work to do. I will reply to them with my work,” Shinde said.

He also reiterated that people would soon see several major projects coming to the state based on his conversations with prime minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah.

“I have spoken to the PM and the Union home minister personally and I can tell you that the state will get major projects in the coming months that will help in the development of the state and make us prosperous,” he said in Nandurbar on Friday.

Samant on Saturday said the Shiv Sena (UBT) should make public any communication or document that proved that they had made efforts to bring the project to Maharashtra when it was in power.

“The demand for my resignation is a political statement but the fact is no attempts were made to get the project in the state by the previous government. No official from MIDC met the Airbus firm for discussions. An official from Tata firm situated at MIHAN in Nagpur enquired about getting land for Airbus-Tata project at Mihan in 2020 but nothing happened later.”

He said that he did not make any assurance that the project will come to Maharashtra.

“I had said I will try my best to get the project to Maharashtra, I never said it is already coming to Maharashtra. I have tried my best, success and failure is not in my hand,” he said.

He said that the opposition’s claim that they signed Memorandum of Understanding (MOUs) for 74 projects which would have created employment opportunities was “an eyewash”. “Signing an MOU is not enough. To activate these projects a cabinet sub-committee meeting is needed. Such a meeting was not held for 14 months when the previous government was in power, we held one in last three months, gave approval to 10 companies and pushed for projects which will create more than 7430 jobs,” Samant said.