Air India is owned by the government of India. And government of India rules stipulate that certain number of vacancies be filled up with suitably qualified candidates from the socially backward communities. There is now apparently a huge backlog of such vacancies for which another attempt is made to see if qualified candidates are available.
Now before Muttley and company again takes off, let me tell you the word is "suitably qualified". No exemption is made on the entry standards obvously. If you have any doubts check out the safety record of the airline concerned - the last major accident was in 1985 off Shannon and that particular one had nothing to do with any deficiency from the airline's operations side.
Every country has its rights to put the interests of its own nationals first in what ever way they may deem fit. And this the same almost everywhere- not just in India! For eg students from India (and from anywhere outside the EU) pay on a average 4 to 5 times the tution fees the EU folks pay in most Briitsh universites !
NB : By the way the president of India is a Muslim, the prime minister a Sikh and the leader of the biggest political party a christian - so dont worry too much on the Hindu issue!