Well a lot has happened in the past few days............as for the unionised pilots now reporting back for duty is not something that i would condemn. But the all out war between the union v/s management and government and the developments resulted from it has totally defeated the purpose of the directive in the first place. The wonderful world of politics comes into play here. The Air India pilots had made a preemptive move to bring to attention the effects of sars in their profession. As we speak now, the sars affected toll in india continues to rise. The director of WHO southeast asia region Dr N Kumara Rai has asserted the need to take the infection seriously. According to him, WHO recommends use of masks, in order of priority - the health care workers attending SARS patients, household caregivers of a patient, air crew attending SARS cases and officials at air and sea ports who screen passengers.
We have already seen in India the first two in the list having been infected despite wearing masks.........how much longer are we going to wait before the infection reaches the other two in the list? Dr Rai himself pointed out that this atypical pneumania has spread rapidly accross the globe as it has been primarily carried by air travellers.
The Air India pilots were on the right track when they chose to support the union over the directive that it issued. However the ensuing days have only shown us what power play and beuraucracy has led to. What the pilots supported at the start of this crisis has now been pushed into the backburner. All that stands right now is power games being played by a chosen few.......the members of the IPG committee and the management. The pilots themselves have not been consulted or even briefed over the developments of the past few days. As it stands today it has all boiled down to each one to their own. Through all of this the management has yet to address the issue of SARS and the impact of it. The failure of the management of a govt owned airline is a reflection of the failure of the govt itself.
However the cancellations of flights, the stranded passengers, the losses incurred from all of this.............for which the pilots are being singularly blamed is totally unfair. None of the IPG member pilots refused to fly. They had all turned up for duty on their respective scheduled flights. The management present at the operations would not allow them to fly if they chose to support the directive. The actions of the management have resulted in these consequences.