Having messed up Air India, once the nation’s pride, with losses touching '46,655 crore in 2007-2013, the government is now thinking of privatising it. Ironically, civil aviation minister Ajit Singh’s proposal comes at a time when the Tatas and Singapore Airlines have joined hands to form a new airline.
Having messed up Air India, once the nation’s pride, with losses touching '46,655 crore in 2007-2013, the government is now thinking of privatising it. Ironically, civil aviation minister Ajit Singh’s proposal comes at a time when the Tatas and Singapore Airlines have joined hands to form a new airline. One wonders if this is just the minister’s stray thought or it is for real as he clarified later that the government had no intention of pouring in any more funds, and if the airline did not “perform”, privatisation might be the only alternative to “perishing”. Thirteen years ago the NDA government had wanted to sell a 40 per cent stake in Air India, and a Tata-Singapore Airlines consortium wanted to bid for it. But this got scuttled, and while Ratan Tata blamed it on “vested interests”, the government till this day hasn’t got to the bottom of it. This is inexplicable. In fact, this “scuttling” game is very much in operation even today — the NDA and two UPA governments later — if what Mr Singh himself significantly alluded to on Saturday is true. He was talking about his ministry’s plans to move a Cabinet note for changes to the rule made some years ago — that a domestic carrier needs five years of flying operations and a fleet of 20 aircraft to be eligible for getting permission to fly overseas. The minister hinted that the framing of this rule may have been due to “some manipulation”. If this rule was the result of manipulation by “vested interests”, then why is it still around Does one need to have a Rahul Gandhi to come and proclaim that it is nonsense and has to be torn up immediately Why is this crony capitalism situation being allowed to continue As the government swings like a pendulum, Air India sinks deeper and deeper into a financial gutter. Even until two or three years ago the government had a slight possibility of turning the airline around, but the stranglehold of bureaucrats over Air India prevented the airline from being headed by a professional. So the good money of the people of this country was spent chasing bogus policies in Air India in a bid to turn it around. In these circumstances, given the reality of the situation, who would want to touch the airline with a barge pole Of course, it still has some historic priceless assets like traffic rights and slots all across the world. That is its only attraction. For the rest, there is also its debt of '46,500 crore and vendor dues of '5,500 crore. It will have to be a braveheart with extremely deep pockets to fall for the minister’s offer!
