Skip to main content

If any Indian company buys up Air-India, a discourteous deadwood, it would be subjected to heavy pressure from politicians

By Gaurav Tyagi
The ‘disinvestment’ decision of the government regarding Air-India is a long overdue, welcome step. This airline is a ‘white elephant’ and presently has a total debt of approximately more than Rs. 52,000 Crores.
Congress party initiated a vicious cycle of turning profit making industries into loss making units by nationalizing them.
JRD Tata established Tata Airlines in 1932, which was usurped by Nehru in the name of preposterous nationalization during November 1952.
Nehru government seized a perfectly working airline from the Tata group and converted it into a tax payer’s money guzzling behemoth known as Air-India. It’s high time to correct this historical blunder.
The author had a brief working stint with Air-India at the I.G.I Airport, New Delhi and is a personal witness to the lack of professionalism and rudeness prevalent in this so called ‘national carrier of India’.
Employees at Air-India coined the following phrases for internal usage amongst each other; ‘Act busy, take it easy and try not to do anything’; ‘We are not hard working but hardly working’.
These Air-India staffers enjoy numerous perks like free pick-ups and drops to the airport, highly subsidized meals; less than Rs. 5 for a plate of vegetarian or non-vegetarian food. All this is at the cost of the exchequer.
It is said that the first impression is the last impression. The majority of Air-India staff cannot even communicate properly in English with foreign visitors thereby, creating a very bad image of India.
The male staff of Air-India shamelessly gazes at the female employees of private/foreign airlines and women travelers. During the night shifts, many Air-India employees consume alcohol, while on duty.
At one point of time, Air-India had approximately 27,000 employees for its fleet of 122 aircrafts, earning it the dubious distinction of being an airline with the highest number of employees per aircraft in the world.
According to Captain Mohan Ranganathan, an aviation safety consultant, “It is a fact that they are over-staffed. Positions were created to please political bosses. Staff was not hired according to operational requirements. People were hired not for competence but for connections.”
Why Indian taxpayer’s money should be frittered away on Air-India?
There is no logic in wasting huge amount of funds to maintain an organization which exists just to serve Indian elites.
The same money which disappears down this black hole, Air-India can be used to improve country’s infra-structure, roads and power supply.
This airline exists only to serve the politicians, its staff, government bureaucrats and their families.
Air-India employees are just enjoying the security of government job. Members of Parliament get free business class tickets throughout the year.
Air-India distorts the market for fares, since the management knows politicians will always bail it out. That’s why it gets away with inefficiency and poor customer service.
Government pumps in massive amount of funds to keep this worthless airlines running. The undue favoritism shown by previous governments towards Air-India has resulted in Billions of Rupees going down the drain.
During the previous UPA regime, Air-India and Indian Airlines were merged. Profitable and lucrative Gulf routes were sold to private carriers.
Purchase of large number of aircrafts by loss incurring Air-India during UPA government was done just to receive commissions and kickbacks in the deal.
In the period from 2004-2014; India’s aviation ministers were known corrupt crooks like Praful Patel and Ajit Singh. They both milked Air India dry as coalition partners of congress.
Government of India must not retain any stake in this ailing, contemptible organization. No Indian company should be allowed to bid for Air-India because, if this happens then the Indian firm would take heavy loans from various Indian banks to finance their purchase.
This will result in the creation of another ‘Vijay Mallya’ wherein, any future potential Indian buyer of Air-India could easily default on his bank loans and run away to settle in a foreign country after a couple of years.
Air India employees are discourteous deadwood. The organization has no work culture. They strongly resist privatization fearing their subsequent lay-offs for ‘non-performance’ through their employee Unions.
In case of any Indian company buying Air-India, the business group would be subjected to heavy pressure from politicians.
This political interference will not result in concrete, positive changes at Air-India therefore, no Indian organization should be allowed to participate in the disinvestment deal of Air-India.
The best option is to sell off this airline to a Middle Eastern Sovereign Fund from Qatar, Dubai etc.
The overfed, incompetent work-force of Air-India has enjoyed for a long time at the expense of Indian tax payers. It’s high time, they realize there are no ‘free lunches’ in this world.
Prime Minister Modi would be doing the nation a great favor through 100% government disinvestment in this obsolete Air-India.

Comments

TRENDING

Importance of Bangladesh for India amidst 'growing might' of China in South Asia

By Samara Ashrat*  The basic key factor behind the geopolitical importance of Bangladesh is its geographical location. The country shares land borders with Myanmar and India. Due to its geographical position, Bangladesh is a natural link between South Asia and Southeast Asia.  The country is also a vital geopolitical ally to India, in that it has the potential to facilitate greater integration between Northeast India and Mainland India. Not only that, due to its open access to the Bay of Bengal, Bangladesh has become significant to both China and the US.

Unlike other revolutionaries, Hindutva icon wrote 5 mercy petitions to British masters

By Shamsul Islam*  The Hindutva icon VD Savarkar of the RSS-BJP rulers of India submitted not one, two,or three but five mercy petitions to the British masters! Savarkarites argue: “There are no evidences to prove that Savarkar collaborated with the British for his release from jail. In fact, his appeal for release was a ruse. He was well aware of the political developments outside and wanted to be part of it. So he kept requesting for his release. But the British authorities did not trust him a bit” (YD Phadke, ‘A complex Hero’, "The Indian Expres"s, August 31, 2004)

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

Buddhist shrines were 'massively destroyed' by Brahmanical rulers: Historian DN Jha

Nalanda mahavihara By Our Representative Prominent historian DN Jha, an expert in India's ancient and medieval past, in his new book , "Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History", in a sharp critique of "Hindutva ideologues", who look at the ancient period of Indian history as "a golden age marked by social harmony, devoid of any religious violence", has said, "Demolition and desecration of rival religious establishments, and the appropriation of their idols, was not uncommon in India before the advent of Islam".

'BBC film shows only tip of iceberg': Sanjiv Bhatt's daughter speaks at top US press club

By Our Representative   The United States' premier journalists' organisation, the National Press Club (NPC), has come down heavily on Prime Minister Narendra Modi for recent "attacks on journalists in India." Speaking at the screening of an episode of the BBC documentary “India: The Modi Question,” banned in India, in the club premises, NPC President Eileen O’Reilly said, “Since Modi came to power we have watched with frustration and disappointment as his regime has suppressed the rights of its citizens to a free and independent news media."

Chinese pressure? Left stateless, Rohingya crisis result of Myanmar citizenship law

By Dr Shakuntala Bhabani*  A 22-member team of Myanmar immigration officials visited Rohingya refugee camps in Cox's Bazar to verify more than 400 Rohingya refugees as part of a pilot repatriation project. Does it hold out any hope for the forcibly displaced people to return to their ancestral homes in the Rakhine state of Myanmar? Only time will tell.

China ties up with India, Bangladesh to repatriate Rohingyas; Myanmar unwilling

By Harunur Rasid*  We now have a new hope, thanks to news reports that were published in the Bangladeshi dailies recently. Myanmar has suddenly taken initiatives to repatriate Rohingyas. As part of this initiative, diplomats from eight countries posted in Yangon were flown to Rakhine last week. Among them were diplomats from Bangladesh, India and China.

40,000 Odisha adolescent girls ask CM: Why is scheme to fight malnutrition on paper?

By Our Representative  In unique a postcard campaign to combat malnutrition, aimed at providing dietary diversity, considered crucial during adolescence, especially among girls, signed by about 40,000 adolescent girls from over 10,000 villages, have reminded Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik that his government's Scheme for Adolescent Girls (SAG), which converged with Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman  ( POSHAN ) 2.0 in 2021, is not being implemented in the State.

Natural farming: Hamirpur leads the way to 'huge improvement' in nutrition, livelihood

By Bharat Dogra*  Santosh is a dedicated farmer who along with his wife Chunni Devi worked very hard in recent months to convert a small patch of unproductive land into a lush green, multi-layer vegetable garden. This has ensured year-round supply of organically grown vegetables to his family as well as fetched several thousand rupees in cash sales.

Over-stressed? As Naveen Patnaik turns frail, Odisha 'moves closer' to leadership crisis

By Sudhansu R Das  Not a single leader in Odisha is visible in the horizon who can replace Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. He has ruled Odisha for nearly two and half decades. His father, Biju Patnaik, had built Odisha; he was a daring pilot who saved the life of Indonesia’s Prime Minister Sjahrir and President Sukarno when the Dutch army blocked their exit.