Jet airways has been given permission to fly to New York. Continental is going to start a non-stop flight between Newark, N.J and New Delhi. The Indian cabinet has approved replacing the 1956 Air Services Agreement with a new one between India and United States which will be signed by US Secretary of Transportation Norm Mineta and Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel.
With the new accord coming into operation, Air India and other carriers will have additional ports of call other than existing ones like Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and Newark (New Jersey).
“Now, we want to start services to Washington, Houston, San Francisco and other American cities,” Patel told reporters after the Cabinet meeting.[Cabinet clears new air services agreement with US]
Yaay! San Francisco is in the list. Also as part of the agreement, more airports in India will be opened for direct flights. My dream of flying from SFO to Cochin International Airport might not materialize immediately, but it is now a possiblity.
The number of flights between India and England is also being increased exponentially. As per a new MoU, the number of flights/week is being increased to 130 (from 40).
Now in the original article, the minister was asked if the Jurrasic Party was consulted on this:
Asked whether Left parties have been consulted before firming up this accord, Patel said this was especially meant to give more air connectivity and point-to-point easier travel for the people of the two countries.
“It is in the interest of our country to see that there are more air services which will enable a free flow of traffic and help our tourism, trade, commerce and industry and also generate employment,” he said. [Cabinet clears new air services agreement with US]
How is the answer related to the question in this case?
I think the good minister said no in the most polite way possible without offending the Left. Personally, I’m waiting for the day for someone in the UPA to tell the Left to go to hell.