A must read book for anyone who wishes to save Air India
In the season of spirituality of Wuhan Virus, I was able to
finish reading an important document of Indian aviation history, titled “The
Descent of Air India” by an insider, Jitender Bhargava. I am aware doesn’t want Air India to be sold off and believes
that it can be revived if political interference is stopped and unions
disciplined. He has ideas which he shares with the readers of this book. However, more you read the book, more you realise
the futility of the idea of reviving Air India.
This book is a heart breaking story of how the most respected brand at
one time has been reduced to utter penury and sunk into irretrievable morass.
What hits you most hard is how politicians of various hues have let their sense of self-importance,
vested interests and surety that they would never be caught red handed or
punished, have sucked Air India dry, actually sucking the tax payers’ blood. Their total disregard for the public money
belonging to the citizens of this country is saddening. The boldness in corruption
is breath-taking.
Controlling a big
glamourous business like airline is such an empowering feeling!
Just to give one example – in 2006, against the estimate of
Security department, for 7.5 milliion INR biometric system, the cost was
escalated by the Tender Committee to 4927 million INR by clever tweaking of the
norms, requirements and qualifications. Tender was awarded in few months to a Canadian
firm. (Page 140-143) However, tender had finally abandoned due to sustained
objections from Finance department. This case led to a corruption scandal
originating in Canada from where the proposed supplier came, in which a prominent
politician too was named; who still
moves around cockily knowing arms of law may be long, but they can’t find the
labyrinthine ways that he has used to dodge those arms. There is a whole
chapter ‘A saga of financial mismanagement’ in the book.
The breath-taking profligacy in ordering new aircrafts at
tax-payers cost against the advice of the experts that finally sunk the airline
and our moneys tells us why we can’t trust politicians to run a complex
business like airlines. (Page 154 – 156) One has to read the book to see how
many wise men raised their voices but were overruled. Just the long haul
aircraft order was raised from 10 to 50, without any serious feasibility study
and databased future projections.
Civil Aviation ministry that controls Air India and
erstwhile Indian Airlines has been run like a private fiefdom by the ministers.
Managing Directors and Chairmen of these airlines were changed and removed more
easily than a peon is removed. Most of the Managing Directors did not last
beyond months, forget years. Only a few honourable exceptions can be pointed
out. They too survived, probably, because they did the bidding for their boss,
the minister; and strengthened their arguments with simple explanation, that
‘idea comes from the minister’. Author
points out the irony of each Chairman repeating the words of preceding
directors, paying homage to great JRD Tata, making the right pitch and finally
leaving behind a much poorer Air India. The much touted board of directors
nominated by the government, post merger, manned by brilliant top minds of
corporate world of India too gave up in dispair and most of them resigned.
The story of moving out of Air India command system from
Mumbai to Delhi, is in itself, a sad story of whimsical irrational working of
Air India leadership. It was because most of the appointees are from IAS cadre
who prefer Lutyen’s Delhi in company of their friends than the commercial hub
of the country. How long can a complex business like an airline be handled by
generalists, not by industry veterans? Even if more good money is thrown
against the bad money to keep Air India alive, how can we citizens be sure that
the politicians will change their ways?
The book reveals the shocking story of blowing the cover off
the whistle blower Mr. Sunil Arora, who was Chairman cum Managing Director of
Indian Airlines when he pointed out irregularities in the working of merged the
airline. (Page 157). This story tells us that nobody was interested in honesty
or truth. The story doesn’t end there but carries on with the scuttling of high
powered probe into the irregularities and corruption charges. Bhargava details how the Parliament Committees
raised questions and criticised the Civil Aviation ministry and how the
ministry skirted the truth and gave oblique responses.
Bhargava goes into the merger of Air India and Indian
Airlines. An idea floated more than a decade back. That no serious though was
given to the serious issue of human resources and imminent clashes, lack of
preparation in rationalising and integrating the routes between Air India and
Indian Airlines is apparent. Even the orders for new aircrafts were not revised
with better negotiation power of a very large merged airline. Explanations are
aplenty but, none satisfactory. Even while this idea was on the burner, the
ministry undermined Indian Airlines and Air India by gifting away the routes
and seats to foreign airlines and private domestic airlines. And, people were wasting their time
discussing merger and revival of the national carrier.
The favourite ploy of top managements and politicians is
appointing experts committees and costly consultants. But, none of the
committee or consultant proposals were accepted or accepted partially. We are
aware that reducing the potency of a medicine means it will not impact the
disease, and may infact act contrary to the purposes for which it is
administered. An international consultancy that was appointed to provide advice
was so ignorant of the history of Indian aviation that it claimed in its notes
that Indian Airlines was older than Air India!
Author repeatedly points out to the unrepentant adamant
unions within Air India for its ills and is unhappy that except him, no senior
manager or chairman was tactfully firm.
Thus, instead of reigning in of the unions, every leader made them
bolder. It is they who hold the key to
revival or death of Air India with their behaviour. He has not found the role of the present Civil
Aviation ministers very encouraging too.
Jitender Bhargava served for more than 20 year in Air India.
He had to suffer various punishments like change in postings. His is an insider’s view. He has collected
plenty of documents of his own time and through RTI to nail the culprits and he
has shared these documents in his book. Many readers may not be aware that the
first edition of this book had to be called back because of the threat of legal
action by an ex-minister of civil aviation.
But, since he was sure of his facts, Bhargava refused to be cowed down
and republished this revised edition with more ammunition! The ex-minister couldn’t bamboozle him.
As we read the book, we realise that Air India is host to a
very difficult triad of politicians, tired professionals within Air India who
feel they have no voice and the self-serving union leaders. Funds are the least concern as, we the
citizens’ are the hapless voiceless contributors to this bottomless pit.
Do
ministers have a vision beyond immediate ego satisfaction of ‘owning’ an
airline? Will professional managers be empowered and given confidence that they
will be given free rein to run their departments efficiently? Will intransigent
unions become responsible and realise that their selfish interests are best
served if Air India thrives? Will
political leadership see through this maze and bring clarity to this mission of
having a national carrier, whether public or private, that we can be proud of?
We are still talking of utopia of a revived Air India. But,
is it possible to reach there, if we refuse to learn from experience? This is
why The Descent of Air India is a must read for all the stake holders.
Ratan Sharda
24-4-2020
First published in Organiser weekly -
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