Staffers overjoyed as AI sale bid fails

A sense of joy prevailed among the employees and related stakeholders soon after the news poured in that Air India's sale bid had no takers. While employees called up each other to plan the evening parties, officials engaged in the process heaved a sigh of relief as they were saved the morning blues having faced innumerable long-drawn meetings every day since the divestment process was initiated.

"There is a big question mark on the kind of bidding process done by the authorities. Thousands of hours were wasted on meetings for the past 10 months. To divest the stake of Air India we had staked ourselves both professionally, personally and socially and the result is this," said a top officer of Air India who had to shuttle to the Airlines House in New Delhi from his place of posting outside the national Capital.

"The very idea of divestment was an easier task for the authorities to think upon but an idea to revamp is a tough task. The Government should have worked upon to restore Air India to its pristine glory and thought of to waive of the debt worth Rs 30,000 crore or restructure through a proper roadmap and an effective management. The end result is just an egg on the face of those people who had got the idea of selling Air India for vested interests," said a serving top official of the airline.

Another official involved in the process said that for the past several months the officials were on their toes to complete paper works, documentations and presentations everyday wherever summoned by the bosses. Officers of the national carrier and their subsidiaries had to fly even 10 times to New Delhi from their locations for meetings and discussions.

"The departments were affected because even the staff there was under pressure to keep things required for the divestment process ready. Who will now bear the cost of thousands of hours of meetings, flying hours, fuel and refreshments and expenses spent on financing the agencies deployed for the divestment purpose," an official said.

While a section of union had appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to stall the divestment process and suggested a revival plan be brought, few of the unions of Air India employees threatened protest against the disinvestment of the national carrier.

The Rashtriya Swayam Sewak (RSS) had also opposed the divestment. Similar opinion was echoed by senior BJP leader Subramanian Swamy too.

"In our view, privatisation of Air India should be completely avoided with an effective revival plan with the participation of employees. It is also urged to write off/ restructure the loan for Air India revival instead of giving benefit to any private entity," employees unions said.