maharaja
11th Jun 2012, 03:33
India Jun 05, 2012 freepressjournal.in/news
THE inability of the Civil Aviation Minister and his minions to solve the month- long pilots'strike, besides reflecting badly on their competency, could also leave apermanent scar on the future of Air India
V GANGADHAR
Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh announced that Air India would junk non- profitable routes which bled the airline for years. How does he propose to do it? In typical bureaucratic mumbo- jumbo, " by setting up a committee to study route profitability and make its recommendations to rationalize the same keeping in view the overall objective of profitability". Haven't we heard all this before? If Air India was overburdened with non- profitable routes, why not set up another committee to probe the role of a near lier Civil Aviation Minister for this mess? Was this the time to set up new committees to probe issues already handled by earlier committees? There were other major issues faced by Air India. The pilots strike was nearly a month- old and both the Minister and the Air India management seemed least bothered about its disastrous consequences. Pilots had been sacked , their official union derecognised but the minister would not take up any issue until the pilots resumed work, minus their sacked colleagues.
Ours is a democracy, employees had the right to form unions, fight injustice and even go on strikes. Airlines staff all over the world did go on strikes but never once had they contend with a management as callous and unjust as Air India.
Without ever going into the reasons for the strike, was it right to sack senior pilots, derecognise their Union and close down their office? When the Minister 'graciously' invited the pilots for talks only if they called off the strike, with no mention about the future of the striking pilots, with whom will he negotiate? There was a lot of pompous talk from bureaucrats, political leaders and others condemning the 'highly- paid' pilots for going on strike, 'holding the nation to ransom'. Yes, pilots were highly paid not only in India but all over the world. They were specially trained in highly skilled jobs and were responsible for the lives of millions of airline passengers. The Air India pilots worked month after month without getting paid their salaries and allowances. They did not go on strike. On the issue of being 'highly paid ' let pilots declare their assets over the past five years and compare them with those of politicians ( including Ajit Singh) for the same period. Mind you, pilots were being paid for their outstanding skills. Can anyone say the same with respect to our MPs, MLAs, Corporators and Ministers who cost a bomb to the exchequer by way salaries and ever- increasing perks? For any section of professionals, pride in their profession was more important than money. Journalists, commentators and TV anchors who attacked the striking pilots forgot this major issue. How would Rajdep Sardesai, Barkha Dutt, Arnab Goswami or Nidi Razdan (all reporters from various well known news channels) feel if tomorrow their managements brought in less qualified people to their Channels and offered them higher jobs with brighter promotion prospects? This was the major reason for the pilots'strike.
Following the ill fated merger between Air India and Indian Airlines ( the worst ever booboo in the history of aviation) rules were framed in such a way that the less experienced ( in flying broad- bodies aircraft like the Boeing 747 and 777) pilots of Indian Airlines enjoyed better promotion opportunities. They could become a Commander after just six years whereas in the case of Air India pilots it was ten years! This was gross injustice.
Would the chair- warming bureaucrats of Air India, most of themwith no expdiene in civil aviation, tolerate a situation where one day, their juniors became their seniors? The Air India pilots were being blamed on issues which were not relevant to them.
Initially, everyone was shouting 'Dreamliner, Dreamliner" and that Air India pilots wanted a monopoly in handling the latest Boeing 787 aircraft, now inducted into Air India. The pilots had no problem over sharing fling duties with former Indian Airlines pilots but quite naturally would not work in situations where they had to take orders from less qualified, less experienced pilots from Indian Airlines. The striking pilots repeatedly told the Minister that once this issue was settled, they would gladly return to work. But the Minister and the bureaucrats acted as if this promotion problem did not exist at all.
We all remember the roles of pioneers like JRD Tata and S K Kooka in building up Air India. But the airline would not have grown to this level but for the efforts put in by the pilots too. It was making profits till the ill- fated merger initiated by former minister, Praful Patel. Of late the appointments of non- aviation people both as Ministers and Air India CMDs had wrecked the morale of the airline.
It needed professional leadership which was not forthcoming. James Hacker, the fictitious minister in the brilliant British satire, 'Yes Minister 'mentioned that in the British system, if a candidate for ministership was specialized in some subject, he would never be allowed to handle a portfolio where his expertise would be of use. Now, Ajit Singh had all along been a farm lobby leader. He might have been able to handle a farmers' strike but was out of his depth when confronted with a pilots' agitation.
Perhaps, this led to his relying too much on the Civil Minister bureaucrats and Air India top management tied up in red tape and lacking in original thinking. The result/? Stalemate Like the blind leading the deaf, the airline stumbled from one crisis to another.
The Vigilance Department reported a huge loss Rs. 4,324 crores due to poor leasing strategy. The Public Accounts Committee for Civil Aviation was studying the issue of loss of profitable routes to competitors and the decision to buy 111 aircraft at a cost of Rs 67,000 crores. A public interest litigation had been filed on these issues. No one could challenge Justice Dharmadhikari report recommending overall belt tightening and slashing of salaries from top to bottom.
We all needed to sacrifice at this hour of crisis. Yet, Ajit Singh chose this moment to announce a lavish trip to politicians, MPs, journalists and Civil Aviation bureaucrats, flying them to US, first class all expenses paid to bring the first Dreamliner aircraft. It was the height of irresponsibility which was reported in some detail only in 'The Hindu.' And now goaded by the Parliament House Committee, Air India and the Airports Authority of India announced a grandiose scheme costing crores of rupees to 'take care of 'our Parliament members and ensure they traveled in 'comfort'. And yet, the only people to get blamed for the Air India mess were its pilots.
THE inability of the Civil Aviation Minister and his minions to solve the month- long pilots'strike, besides reflecting badly on their competency, could also leave apermanent scar on the future of Air India
V GANGADHAR
Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh announced that Air India would junk non- profitable routes which bled the airline for years. How does he propose to do it? In typical bureaucratic mumbo- jumbo, " by setting up a committee to study route profitability and make its recommendations to rationalize the same keeping in view the overall objective of profitability". Haven't we heard all this before? If Air India was overburdened with non- profitable routes, why not set up another committee to probe the role of a near lier Civil Aviation Minister for this mess? Was this the time to set up new committees to probe issues already handled by earlier committees? There were other major issues faced by Air India. The pilots strike was nearly a month- old and both the Minister and the Air India management seemed least bothered about its disastrous consequences. Pilots had been sacked , their official union derecognised but the minister would not take up any issue until the pilots resumed work, minus their sacked colleagues.
Ours is a democracy, employees had the right to form unions, fight injustice and even go on strikes. Airlines staff all over the world did go on strikes but never once had they contend with a management as callous and unjust as Air India.
Without ever going into the reasons for the strike, was it right to sack senior pilots, derecognise their Union and close down their office? When the Minister 'graciously' invited the pilots for talks only if they called off the strike, with no mention about the future of the striking pilots, with whom will he negotiate? There was a lot of pompous talk from bureaucrats, political leaders and others condemning the 'highly- paid' pilots for going on strike, 'holding the nation to ransom'. Yes, pilots were highly paid not only in India but all over the world. They were specially trained in highly skilled jobs and were responsible for the lives of millions of airline passengers. The Air India pilots worked month after month without getting paid their salaries and allowances. They did not go on strike. On the issue of being 'highly paid ' let pilots declare their assets over the past five years and compare them with those of politicians ( including Ajit Singh) for the same period. Mind you, pilots were being paid for their outstanding skills. Can anyone say the same with respect to our MPs, MLAs, Corporators and Ministers who cost a bomb to the exchequer by way salaries and ever- increasing perks? For any section of professionals, pride in their profession was more important than money. Journalists, commentators and TV anchors who attacked the striking pilots forgot this major issue. How would Rajdep Sardesai, Barkha Dutt, Arnab Goswami or Nidi Razdan (all reporters from various well known news channels) feel if tomorrow their managements brought in less qualified people to their Channels and offered them higher jobs with brighter promotion prospects? This was the major reason for the pilots'strike.
Following the ill fated merger between Air India and Indian Airlines ( the worst ever booboo in the history of aviation) rules were framed in such a way that the less experienced ( in flying broad- bodies aircraft like the Boeing 747 and 777) pilots of Indian Airlines enjoyed better promotion opportunities. They could become a Commander after just six years whereas in the case of Air India pilots it was ten years! This was gross injustice.
Would the chair- warming bureaucrats of Air India, most of themwith no expdiene in civil aviation, tolerate a situation where one day, their juniors became their seniors? The Air India pilots were being blamed on issues which were not relevant to them.
Initially, everyone was shouting 'Dreamliner, Dreamliner" and that Air India pilots wanted a monopoly in handling the latest Boeing 787 aircraft, now inducted into Air India. The pilots had no problem over sharing fling duties with former Indian Airlines pilots but quite naturally would not work in situations where they had to take orders from less qualified, less experienced pilots from Indian Airlines. The striking pilots repeatedly told the Minister that once this issue was settled, they would gladly return to work. But the Minister and the bureaucrats acted as if this promotion problem did not exist at all.
We all remember the roles of pioneers like JRD Tata and S K Kooka in building up Air India. But the airline would not have grown to this level but for the efforts put in by the pilots too. It was making profits till the ill- fated merger initiated by former minister, Praful Patel. Of late the appointments of non- aviation people both as Ministers and Air India CMDs had wrecked the morale of the airline.
It needed professional leadership which was not forthcoming. James Hacker, the fictitious minister in the brilliant British satire, 'Yes Minister 'mentioned that in the British system, if a candidate for ministership was specialized in some subject, he would never be allowed to handle a portfolio where his expertise would be of use. Now, Ajit Singh had all along been a farm lobby leader. He might have been able to handle a farmers' strike but was out of his depth when confronted with a pilots' agitation.
Perhaps, this led to his relying too much on the Civil Minister bureaucrats and Air India top management tied up in red tape and lacking in original thinking. The result/? Stalemate Like the blind leading the deaf, the airline stumbled from one crisis to another.
The Vigilance Department reported a huge loss Rs. 4,324 crores due to poor leasing strategy. The Public Accounts Committee for Civil Aviation was studying the issue of loss of profitable routes to competitors and the decision to buy 111 aircraft at a cost of Rs 67,000 crores. A public interest litigation had been filed on these issues. No one could challenge Justice Dharmadhikari report recommending overall belt tightening and slashing of salaries from top to bottom.
We all needed to sacrifice at this hour of crisis. Yet, Ajit Singh chose this moment to announce a lavish trip to politicians, MPs, journalists and Civil Aviation bureaucrats, flying them to US, first class all expenses paid to bring the first Dreamliner aircraft. It was the height of irresponsibility which was reported in some detail only in 'The Hindu.' And now goaded by the Parliament House Committee, Air India and the Airports Authority of India announced a grandiose scheme costing crores of rupees to 'take care of 'our Parliament members and ensure they traveled in 'comfort'. And yet, the only people to get blamed for the Air India mess were its pilots.