If there's no political pressure why Jet reinstated staff: Raj

MUMBAI: Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray on Friday questioned Jet Airways Chief Naresh Goyal's statement that the decision to reinstate sacked staff was not due to any political pressure.

"If there was no pressure, then how come the decision to sack staff was reverted within 12 hours," Raj told reporters here after meeting some of the members of the retrenched staff who came to thank him for his role in the matter.

In a late night press conference yesterday, Goyal had said that he took the decision to reinstate the staff because of "my own conscience and not in response to any political pressure".

MNS had claimed that Goyal rang up Raj to resolve the issue but the Jet chief denied speaking to even a single politician in connection with the staff lay-off.

Raj confirmed that there were no "direct talks between him and Goyal".

"I had sent him a message that he should first reinstate the staff, then only will I be in a position to speak to him," Raj said.

Asked the reason for the cabin crew members coming to meet him instead of going to Shiv Sena, controlled by his estranged cousin Uddhav Thackeray, despite the Sena having a strong union in Jet, Raj said "you better ask them (Sena) about this".