Privatize Air India

The recent threat by 100 Air India pilots to go on a strike mode has again raised serious questions about the airline management by the Civil Aviation ministry. Although the ministry has toughened its stand and clearly indicated that if this strike persists it would be pushed to a position to shut down international operations, the ground reality is that the government can't even think in those tough lines, for how these politicians and bureaucrats would avail the freebies like foreign tours without the presence of a national carrier. Despite Air India bleeding for decades together and burning taxpayers money, the Civil Aviation ministry has never mulled over the gravity of the issue. And the reasons are quite obvious. Rather not serving the national interests, AI has literally turned into a family carrier for ministers and senior bureaucrats.

When the losses are piling up and there is no turnaround strategy for this business, then why the Civil Aviation ministry is not privatizing Air India? Instead it's lingering on political decisions to infuse more public money into an already bankrupt business. The government must now understand that the disastrous failure of Air India stems from the flawed decisions taken by the ministry in the past. No political decision however looks benevolent is driven by vested interests, and the Civil Aviation ministry is no different either. Irrespective of politicians who have held this ministry in the past, their primary objective has been to cultivate a hand-and-glove rule to embezzle public money through various financial decisions.

Now the big question is that whether Air India can survive the losses for eternity? Perhaps, few years down the line, if the prevailing situation doesn't improve, the government would be forced to shut down the state carrier. So, it's better the ministry should come out with a privatization policy. There are well-documented business cases in airline industry across the globe as how bankrupted national carriers have been privatized and transformed into highly profitable ventures. A case in point is the Germany's national carrier German Airlines. In the 90s this German carrier was in a severe financial mess. However, the German government's decision to privatize it at right time worked wonder. And the Lufthansa's telling story is just another compelling example for transformation of morbid Air India.

So, what's more important at this point in time is to reach at a political consensus to turn around Air India through privatization route. Rather debating on the prestige issue of bleeding Maharaja and spoon feeding it through various financial supports, the ministry must think rational and arrive at a logical conclusion. Privatize it.

Privatize profit, nationalize loss

What's more shocking than intriguing in the state of government intervention for proposing to consortium of banks to increase the credit limit (read bail out) for Vijay Mallya's Kingfisher Airlines is that the same government which fails to protect the national interest of many PSUs now treads dangerously on rather an unprecedented move to create a bad precedent in the history of economic liberalization of India. Is this a proactive move or a glimpse of dirty nexus between government and corporate that has produced crony capitalism in India? Why the minister of Civil Aviation including the prime minister himself are on a hot foot to show their magnanimity for a corporate entity that has shamelessly failed to understand the business of aviation and has eventually turned into a loss making venture? The irony here is that when the national carrier Air India is bleeding so badly and the same government is apparently clueless about the turnaround strategy, what's the rationality behind this bail out plan for a private company?

Perhaps, there might be some hidden agenda behind this irrational move of government, but the larger question here is what prompts the ministers to be so idiosyncratically shameless to sing the chorus of crony capitalism in a time when the corporate entities are forgetting their fundamental responsibilities of managing a business with due diligence? In a free market, the corporates have huge freedom, irrespective of challenging government policies whatsoever untoward or nonsupporting, to run a business with dexterity and reason; however, the Kingfisher Airlines has severely failed to showcase the fundamentals of operational excellence. And the sad part is that the prime minister has expressed the concerns over faulty government policies that have affected the civil aviation industry at large. So, what the technocrat prime minister was doing till now? Was he in a slumber mode? Or had he lost his wisdom to advise the corresponding departmental ministers at least once in last seven years to take a serious cognizance of the issue?

Although this is not a so called pure bail out plan for Kingfisher Airlines, even the government's unreasonable concern for a private venture is an unwelcome move. Any corporate has its own board to advise the executives to manage the organization within the PEST (political, economic, social, and technological) ecosystem, and if the board has failed to recognize the glaring issues and lost its wit to understand the bigger picture, it's better that corporate entity should die early rather screaming for public help. In either case, the story of that corporate would be a disastrous business case which no one would like to give a sneak preview, forget about mulling over.

Take the bull by the horns

Enough is enough is now. For over a week, few hundreds of Indian Airlines pilots have resorted to illegal strike without justifiable reasons and eventually hijacked the national flight services to the nadir. Despite the High Court order, these defiant pilots have hardly shown an iota of respect to the judicial system of this country. Why the government is still witnessing this high drama without taking immediate actions against these stupid pilots who think that they can do whatever and whenever they wish without considering the sanctity of their job responsibilities? Thousands of travelers have been affected by the idiosyncratic decision of these pilots and there is no specific action has yet been taken either by the management or the Ministry of Civil Aviation. And the poor passengers are suffering like hell. How long this anarchy will go on?

As per the sources, these pilots demand a rise in their salary and other benefits equivalent to the salary of a section of pilots in Air India; however, some of the pilots claim that their strike is not related to pay hike, but to expose the corrupt practices. Well, let's consider the first point of confrontation, i.e. pay hike. First, I don't understand why the pilots are drawing a hugely filthy salary in the range of 2 Lacs to 7 Lacs per month? Are they doing any intellectual job? Even the most intellectuals including top scientists and educationists in this country are not drawing a fraction of the salary what these stupid pilots (read high-end drivers), who are just a graduate and almost carry a dubious airline training license, are drawing. Moreover, the Indian Air Force pilots, whose contributions to the defense of our nation are immense, are not even drawing such huge salary. Is their any justification then left why should they every time call a strike to get a pay hike that they don't deserve at all.

Secondly, these pilots and most of which carry a fake certificate to fly a plane just to draw a fat pay packet claim to expose the corrupt practices in the airlines management. Sounds ridiculous? Yes. They must remember that no corrupt person has any moral right to fight against corruption. Only just and honest people in this country can claim to do so because they don't have any vested interest in exposing the corruption. Moreover, if corruption in AI or IA is so rampant, the right party in this country will take action against the culprits. The losses borne by the national carrier due to pilot strikes during various points of time even represent an act of corruption.

Thirdly, the indecisive government has failed to take any prudent action against these errant pilots who have created so much anarchy in flight services. Who will compensate the personal loss of passengers? Pilots or the government? Now is the time the government should act tough rather than doing a lip service. Seven days of disservice to thousands of passengers is not a joke, a dastardly criminal act. And for that, all these bloody pilots should be fired immediately and for a temporary measure the government should induct IAF pilots to action without delay, and subsequently recruit fresh pilots from the open market. In doing so, the government shouldn't forget to design an effective business continuity plan to avoid such untoward incidents in future as well.