WELCOME BACK “MAHARAJA”?

It is the news I have been waiting for and looking forward to since a long time. And finally, it was splashed all around and everybody seems to be quite pleased with this development.

Tatas have, after all, shown genuine interest and are seriously considering taking over the now struggling but once one of the most admired airlines of the world, Air India.

My happiness is twofold; one, being an ex -Tata employee, I always felt that Air India was wrongfully and surreptitiously snatched away from Tatas, where it truly belonged, and two, I firmly believe that it was one of the most stupid decisions to first nationalize(1953) and then takeover(1978), a profit making and extremely well managed airline, which was also a brand ambassador of the country. It sent terribly wrong signals to the Indian business community. I personally felt betrayed because I, and many like minded people across the country, detest and are terribly against such mindless nationalization drives which have been more poll politics driven than based on any economic or security concerns.

I distinctly remember, a few years after the nationalization of Air India , Late Mr. JRD Tata in an interview with Rajiv Mehrotra, an astute interviewer of the time, had talked about how Late Prime Minister Morarji Desai had fired him from the chairmanship of Air India and how he came to know about it from a third person? That speaks a lot about how the successive socialism infested governments of this country had been treating our true nation-builders, the industrialists?

No wonder, after more than 74 years of our independence, we must NOW reinvent India through a transformational initiative like ATMANIRBHAR BHARAT?

Late JRD , in the same interview, fondly remembers how Air India was very dear to him , as he believed that it was the only Tata group company that he personally built from a scratch, brick by brick , whereas the rest of the group companies were built by his illustrious family members and were handed over to him. Though Shri JRD was of course being humble about these other companies in the group, but it clearly reflects how passionately he built Air India, and felt about its loss?

Life has indeed come full circle since February 1978, the fateful day when Air India was nationalized.

Somewhere in mid-sixties, when I was around 10-12 years old, my father those days used to buy a popular international magazine named LIFE for us. Besides the brilliant photographs and valuable information, this magazine also used to have lot of advertisements including those of international airlines. There used to be very prominent names like BOAC( the erstwhile British Overseas Air Corporation, now the British Airways) , Pan Am, KLM etc., but I rarely saw an advertisement by our own Air India and that intrigued and agitated me quite a lot. One day I asked my father that, how come there are all the ads. of international airlines but hardly one from Air India?

What he explained to me was quite revealing and has stayed with me till this day; he said Air India is already one of the best, profitable and popular airline in the world and hence it hardly needs to do any publicity.

Though nationalized surreptitiously by Government of India in 1953, it continued to enjoy autonomy of functioning and scaled new heights of glory and success under the able and demanding leadership of JRD Tata. As a growth oriented and forward looking airline of a young nation, it had so many firsts to its credit, from flying the first jet flight in Asia, to the first all jet airline in the world and charting new routes ,its famous mascot The Maharaja scaled new heights of popularity across the world.

That was then, but all that changed once the airline was nationalized and since the unceremonious departure of JRD Tata, Air India was thrown into the deadly cobweb of bureaucratic stranglehold and political opportunism, and thus began the downward slide of a great national icon. It went through one controversy after another and kept falling, never able to regain its erstwhile position of success and glory. It continued to suffer under a toxic mix of scandals and colossal blunders like sharing of routes and hubs, merger with Indian Airlines and scandalous purchase of aircrafts. All these ill-conceived, politically motivated but financially self-serving decisions irreparably damaged the once grand airline and turned it into a poor and desperate image of its erstwhile avatar.

The great Maharaja was lost somewhere in the dark and deep woods of politics and bureaucracy- battered and bruised.

But then all that could be a thing of the past now? If Tatas do, finally, decide to take over this beleaguered airline, they would not only be responding to the aspirations of a grateful nation but also restoring back the glory of the once great Air India.

Everybody wants to see the Maharaja fly high again – profitable, successful, and reflecting the mood of the New India.

The nation is waiting, with bated breath!

*The views are personal.