Once upon a time, long, long ago there was an airline in India that was the cynosure of the global civil aviation industry. Its mascot was a proud but friendly Maharajah, who wore a smile and bent forward, rather than look uppity and self important, and welcomed satisfied passengers aboard. The air hostesses were smart and friendly, the food was good and the world liked travelling on the Maharajah’s magic carpet. Then India’s new maharajahs and their darbaris came along. The smiling Maharajah was dethroned, derobed and demoralised. The kingdom was lost but the courtiers of the new feudals ruled the roost and had a good time. And they still do!
Nothing embodies the pathetic feudalism of India's civil aviation ministry and the culture of the Delhi darbar better than the latest decision of the ministry to extend lifelong upgrade option to former civil aviation secretaries. The real joke is the defence of this move offered by a former civil aviation secretary who justified it on the grounds that such a facility was already available to former civil aviation ministers and to former chairmen of the airlines. If the ministers who downgraded the airlines can get upgrades, why not the secretaries who helped them?! Just in case there are murmurs of protest in other wings of the government or the media, the ministry and the airlines are quite happy to offer upgrades to sundry officials, diplomats, politicians and, of course, journalists.
Air India and Indian Airlines have been destroyed by the cronyism, the feudalism and the bureaucratism of successive governments. Public ownership is not necessarily the villain of the piece. Consider the fact that one of the world’s best airlines, Singapore Airlines, is also publicly owned. Singapore’s politicians and civil servants do not interfere with the airline the way India's do. A professional management runs the business with pride and competence, and no one gets an upgrade! Singapore’s prime minister flies around the world like any other passenger in regular commercial flights and Singapore’s civil servants do not have cronies carrying their bags and walking them through security at the airport. And, India is supposed to be the democracy!
The revival of Air India should begin with demerger of AI and IA, undoing the damage inflicted by the present ministerial dispensation. Next, the civil aviation ministry should be wound up, or at least cease to have any managerial jurisdiction on public sector airlines. But none of this will make much of a difference if New Delhi darbari culture of bureaucratic and political overlordism does not end. India has experienced a paradoxical drift towards bureaucratism in government and the public sector along with rise of public-private partnerships and crony capitalism, with cronies becoming the new feudals who flout airport security and other rules with impunity. Since civil servants have not been able to halt this slide, they seem to have now decided to jump on board the gravy train and serve themselves a share of the icing. None of this augurs well for the so-called national carriers.
