Says it wants to stay politically neutral

An interaction that was sought on Saturday between Congress national president Rahul Gandhi and the employees’ union of Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. stands cancelled, the union’s general secretary Suryadevara Chandra Shekhar has confirmed.

“We are a government-owned company. We want to stay [politically] neutral. Definitely we are pained by the criticism made about the capabilities of this 78-year-old organisation. HAL is the backbone of India’s defence, but it has been badly underestimated of late. But we do not want to be caught in any slugfest,” said Mr. Shekhar, who is the chief convener of the All-India HAL Trade Unions Coordination Council. It spans 20,000 employees across nine units.

The management has also issued a circular cautioning against any overt political engagement under the employees’ code of conduct.

For its part, the union is independently finalising a fact sheet detailing HAL’s contribution to national defence, its projects and infrastructure. The report will be presented soon to the Prime Minister, the two Defence Ministers, and the Defence Secretary, he said.

“We will also seek a role for HAL in the production of the new proposal to buy 110 MMRCAs (fighters). We have the manpower and the infrastructure to do it,” he said.

Interaction with staff

Meanwhile, the State unit of the Congress has planned an interaction programme of party president Rahul Gandhi with former and current employees of HAL on the Rafale controversy. It will be held at Cubbon Park in Bengaluru on Saturday.

The Congress has accused the Narendra Modi governmentat the Centre of violating the defence procurement procedure and bypassing the interests of the PSU.

Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president Dinesh Gundu Rao told reporters that the Congress had not sought permission from HAL for conducting the programme on its premises. About 100 employees and former employees will participate in the programme, he said. However, a public meeting of Mr. Gandhi at a ground in K.R. Puram has been cancelled owing to security reasons. Mr. Rao said that Mr. Gandhi would interact with the HAL employees on the contributions of the PSU to the defence sector.

Meanwhile, an official source in HAL said it had not received any communication with regard to Mr. Gandhi’s interaction programme with its employees.