Who killed the Maharaja?

The book chronicles the rapid descent of Air India from being the ‘Pride of Indian aviation’ to near-bankruptcy today, writes A Ranganathan

The Descent of Air India

Author: Jitender Bhargava

Publisher: Bloomsbury, Rs 499

The book chronicles the descent of Air India from when it was the “Pride of Indian aviation” during the days of JRD Tata, to the “bridesmaid” status in the late 1980s and 1990s, and finally the rapid descent in the post-2000 ‘Malgudi days’.

Praful Patel and V Thulasidas find the pride of the place in the ‘Malgudi days’ phase, but one cannot ignore the fact that the present incumbent hit the irretrievable nail in Air India’s coffin with the complete sellout of bi-laterals to Abu Dhabi. Jitender Bhargava lists the Baker’s dozen of chairmen appointed since 1989 that includes industrial tycoons, babus and in-house employees. All of them carried out the biddings of various politicians. The independent board members in the ‘lootmaar’ days in the post-merger period have not painted themselves well, either. Instead of ensuring a smooth functioning of the airline, they limited themselves to an impotent role.

The author points to the period between 2004-2008 when sycophancy was at its height in Air India and condemns the inflated orders for aircrafts without the board’s concurrence. The Air India and Indian Airlines aircrafts’ acquisition took a backseat ever since the Rajiv Gandhi Government was involved in the Airbus kickback issue. All subsequent ministers sidestepped and let the two airlines languish with old aircrafts. Praful Patel bulldozed the extraordinary order ignoring all sensible logic. The original order for the 10 Airbus A 340-600 approved by the committee and the board was changed to the huge Boeing order. The CAG report is quite scathing and what is spelt out in the book is nothing enlightening. It is a scam of the highest proportion and hopefully the perpetrators will be taken to task.

The cover-up of the operating losses that tripled in the 2005-2007 period under Praful Patel and Thulasidas should also have been exposed by the airline. Bhargava blames the unions for all ills. There was no love lost between the unions, especially the Cabin Crew Association and Praful Patel. Everyone chose to remain silent. Several union leaders were hand-in-glove with the spineless management which danced to their tunes since the late 1980s. Staff strength increased illogically to placate unions and the biggest blunder committed by the management has been to permit political leaders to head professional unions. Bhargava, however, fails to indicate the same in the book.

An obvious pointer that comes out of the book is the “ill-conceived merger” being the primary cause of the decline of the Maharaja. The entire book has just passing references to the Indian Airlines arm of Air India. This is the mindset of many and the author is also guilty of this.  Bhargava says that Air India has been his karmabhoomi for more than 20 years since he had joined Air India in 1989 as a “young, impressionable and keen to make a mark” person. Having worked in the media, he would have known that he could have passed on the downslide pointers discretely. He chose to do that only after leaving the airline.

Bhargava points out that the merger was at first mooted by Rajiv Gandhi but was quietly buried with inputs from Ratan Tata and Rahul Bajaj. The suicidal revival of that proposal by the UPA Government pushed through at the cost of tax-payers is another nail in the coffin of the spiritless board with their independent members from India Inc. The difference was that Rajiv was an aviator and he listened to wise counsel. The current lot is unlike him and the result is the uncontrolled descent of Air India.

Air India’s descent started from the late 1980s when political wheeling and dealing controlled appointments to top posts. Bhargava blames every CMD (except Sunil Arora) as well as the cabin crew union for the same. The comment — “Once in the air, Air India is the best” — and the emphasis on in-flight services and celebrity travel with Air India, is also a factor that brought about its downfall. The route structure of Air India was not market-oriented but more inclined towards pleasing the right people. Post-merger, there were duplication of routes with offices and staff handling the two arms. This senseless supplication of the management is a major cause of the downfall.

Air India’s descent was also due to its safety record. On paper, their slate may be clean as all the agencies are Government-controlled and the truth was suppressed. In the minds of international travellers, there was a question mark on the safety of Air India operations. The loss of first and business class travellers was not just due to poor in-flight service. Moreover, the first class has become the fiefdom of the ministers and government officials who take full advantage of the freebees. Until the 1980s, Air India was the preferred carrier for first class in the trans-Atlantic flights. That went downhill from the 1990s.

The book drifts from one timeline to another and even the Prologue throws up questions that would add to the doubts about the timing of the book. There are far too many repetitions of statements and there appears to be an overreach of aversion to the cabin crew association and unions. Having headed the HR department, Bhargava should realise that the “Human Relations” factor was missing in Air India for a long time. The pre-1990s Air India staff had pride. The post-1990s staff is aware that a permanent employee remains in service irrespective of whether he works or not. Connections were all that mattered for moving up the ladder and not merit. For those in aviation the contents of the book are known facts. For others, the book may not hold interest.

The reviewer is an aviation safety consultant