INTERVIEWS
SPECIALS
CHAT
ARCHIVES

Business Commentary/ Dilip Thakore

Govt doesn't give a damn for India's best brains

One of the fundamental differences between the literate democracies of the developed world and the illiterate democracy fashioned by post-Independence India's hollow leaders is that in the former each human life is greatly valued. Only societies which value each human being as a productive member of the community and as a parent, husband and head of a potentially contributing family, are likely to appreciate and develop abstractions such as fundamental rights, the right to equality and the dignity of the individual.

Once upon a time, the Indian intelligentsia used to take great umbrage when Westerners made statements inferring that in their societies, greater value is placed upon the life of each individual. When during the Vietnam war, the then US joint chief of the armed forces, General Westmoreland, made a statement to this effect, Indian intellectuals were in the forefront of the worldwide chorus of indignation which greeted this remark.

The argument advanced by Indian intellectuals was that in the developing nations of the Third World, the value placed on the life of each male in particular is greater than in the West because underdeveloped societies lack the supportive welfare systems which take care of widows and orphans.

One has not heard this ingenious argument being advanced in recent times. Over the past three decades since the end of the Vietnam war, even perpetually posturing Indian intellectuals seem to have conceded the reality that life is much cheaper in the Orient than in the developed democracies of the world.

These morbid thoughts mushroomed within the mind recently when I took a scheduled Sahara Airlines flight from Bombay to Bangalore.

Sahara Airlines is a constituent unit of the Lucknow-based Sahara group of finance and parabanking companies which mobilise a reported Rs 1.5 billion per day from people in the small towns and villages of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh -- India's most backward and illiterate states.

The Sahara group which claims an asset base of Rs 84 billion built up over the past two decades, has metamorphosed into a cash-rich powerhouse within the Indian industry with high-profile diversifications into media, real estate and yes, even civil aviation. Sahara Airlines has a fleet of 12 aircraft flying the domestic skies.

Of course, the Sahara group whose essential business is built around persuading peasants to park their savings with its three parabanking companies, has no previous experience of the civil aviation -- or any type of transportation business. But one cannot blame Subrata Roy, chairman and managing worker, of the Sahara group, for this.

Strange but true, the official policy (formulated by then Union civil aviation minister Chand Mahal Ibrahim) is that only companies with absolutely no experience of the civil aviation business are permitted to fly the domestic skies. This is the main qualification of Sahara Airlines.

Which is not much of a qualification as I discovered when, persuaded as much by the airline's ten per cent discounted fare and its facilitating ground staff that I had noticed on previous journeys on other airlines, I purchased a Sahara Airlines return ticket to Bombay.

The flight on the way out was cancelled, I discovered, when I reached Bangalore airport because the previous day, one of its aircraft was damaged at Indore airport. Miraculous escape for the passengers, said the newspapers.

On the way back, I took the precaution of ringing the airline's desk at the airport to check whether the flight was on schedule. No, that very day the winter schedule had been changed (a bald lie) and the flight would take off an hour later than scheduled.

When I reported at the airport, the flight was postponed by another hour, that is, to 1935 hours. No public announcement was made even as 1935 approached. Enquiries revealed that the flight had not landed from Lucknow which I discovered from regular patrons of the airline was a mantra recited by the ground staff in reverential tones. Headquarters, you know.

Eventually we boarded the airplane at 2045 hours. Seated inside, quite a few passengers discovered that their seat-belts were faulty and did not fasten. Moreover, as we were about to take off, a passenger looking out of the window discovered that a thin jet of aviation fuel was spurting from beneath one of the wings. This had to be confirmed by the cabin crew who crowded the window, flashlights in hand, of the sealed-in plane.

After much to-ing and fro-ing, the flight eventually took off and reached Bangalore late in the night without further mishap. But talking to regular air travellers on the flight, I learned that such delays, technical problems and near misses while taking off and landing are the normal hazards of flying the Indian skies.

Hardly surprising given that in its highly questionable wisdom, the Union government has licensed only some companies. And the public sector Indian Airlines with some 20,000 militantly unionised employees reportedly servicing 52 aircraft is, well, Indian Airlines.

This is the backdrop of one of the great and enduring mysteries of Indian civil aviation. During the past three years, several governments in New Delhi have consistently refused to grant a civil aviation licence to a joint venture company proposed to be promoted by the business house of Tata and Singapore Airlines.

One of the most respected business groups in Indian industry, the Tatas have considerable experience of the commercial aviation business having promoted Tata Airlines in the thirties which later metamorphosed into Air-India.

And Singapore Airlines has been consistently rated among the world's top three airlines in terms of on-time performance and service for several decades. Indeed, it was this proposal to gift India with a super safe and world-class airline which sparked Ibrahim's famous minute disqualifying those with previous experience of the commercial aviation business from flying the Indian skies.

The conclusion is inescapable: the Government of India does not give a damn for lives that may be lost in air disasters. To people of average or ordinary intelligence it should be self-evident that civil aviation is a high-risk, no-second-chances business in which only highly experienced companies and personnel should be allowed to participate.

Even the dangerous shenanigans of constantly agitating government-employed air traffic controllers are being tacitly encouraged by the civil aviation ministry's failure to train defence and paramilitary personnel to handle air traffic when ATCs are on strike/go-slows.

Although it is not politically correct to say so, the truth is that generally speaking, air travellers are among the best, brightest and successful businessmen and professionals which the economy can ill-afford to lose.

Of course, unproductive and chaos-multiplying politicians can't be expected to understand the import of this reality. But maybe the force of public opinion can force them to understand and stop playing their foolish and dangerous games with the lives of productive citizens in the Indian skies.

Dilip Thakore

Business news