Maharaja can’t rule

There are several pre-requisites for things to go according to the government’s plan on Air India. To begin with,it is necessary to hand over the leadership role to professionals who are best qualified to make good use of the financial bonanza. In the last four years,Air India has seen three chief executives at its helm,two of whom could not complete their full term. All three have been government officials on deputation,with their confidential reports written by the civil aviation secretary. So,more often than not,they had to toe the ministry’s line or be in the line of fire themselves. With 28,500 permanent staff and 10,000 on contract,it is a no-brainer that the organisation is bloated. Manpower and wage rationalisation is the only way forward. It may be difficult to fire staff in PSUs,but it’s high time the board presented a credible VRS to prune its workforce. A PSU running on a bailout,with over Rs 20,000 crore in accumulated losses,will have to find a way to curb wasteful sops. To take just one instance,in passages or free tickets an employee and her family is entitled to,family is defined to include at least ten types of relatives like parents,brother,sister,children,grandchildren,in-laws and so on.

As the PSU board prepares itself for the tough decisions,the government must delink itself from Air India. It must let a professional board run the operations. Only if the maharaja is freed from the government’s clutches can he be expected to react with any degree of agility to competition from private sector rivals. With taxpayer money coming to the rescue of the airline more than once,the government must see the writing on the wall and prepare the political leadership for a strategic stake sale. The impending decision on 49 per cent FDI stake sale to foreign airlines,on which the government has already firmed up its policy,should enable Air India,too,to find a global investor.