Turkish delight

It would have been marvellous had the Left and its trade union fellow travellers issued an elegant admission of fault in the wake of GMR, the Hyderabad-based company that runs the Delhi airport, winning the contract to build a new airport in Istanbul. GMR is part of a three-company consortium that bested tough global competition abroad. This, from a company that is still not 30, that is run not by a haloed business family but a first generation businessman. The Turks weren’t obviously doing GMR a favour; they desperately need a world-class airport in Istanbul to decongest the existing Ataturk airport.

Which is why it would have been nice to have a Left mea culpa. A few months back, Delhi and Mumbai airport modernisation was held up by agitating Leftist politicians and union leaders who basically argued that private companies were simply not capable of doing as good a job as the Airport Authority of India was doing for decades. GMR won the Delhi airport bid but the reception it got was far more hostile than any Indian company can expect abroad. Privately-run airports, the Left said, didn’t have any economic logic; it only proved the existence of crony capitalism. But of course the Left will not say we got it wrong. Hopefully, policymakers will see the implication: when Indian entreprenuers, even or especially newly minted ones, are allowed to function, they can often be there with the best, what they need are clear and transparent policies.

That means, first, the sterile public or private debate must stop. Second, contractual probity must be maintained — governments can’t keep on changing guidelines. Third, and in case the project involves reforming a previously state-run entity, burdensome clauses about maintaining the status quo ante won’t help anyone. There’s plenty of money out there, plenty of entrepreneurial and technical capacity — what infrastructure needs is clear official intent. Three years of this government and we still don’t have it. Perhaps there is something to learn from the Turks.