The 2004 Tsunami was one of the most
tragic natural disasters that the country ever faced. Thousands of people lost
their lives and many people who were on sea were never found. Personally too,
this incident marked a change in my views on public sector companies and why
they have a strong and definite role to play in our country.
It was the day after Tsunami and I was on
a flight from Bangalore to Vishakhapatnam via Hyderabad. After landing in
Hyderabad, I was informed that our onward flight on Alliance Air (sister
concern of Indian Airlines) to Vishakhapatnam was cancelled. I was furious as I
had an important meeting the next morning, for which I needed to be in
Vishakhapatnam by atleast 730 am the next morning. It was almost 4pm and with
600 kms of travel, reaching Vishakhapatnam on time was indeed looking
difficult. I was furious and started venting my frustration at a hapless
young officer at the counter. An
experienced officer was watching all this from inside the cabin
What he said after that made me feel
ashamed of my behavior. I don’t remember his exact words, but it was somewhat
like this. “Gentlemen, as you are aware, a huge Tsunami has struck our country.
Places like Andaman and Nicobar islands have been worst hit. Hundreds of
tourists and residents are living in absolutely hazardous conditions. We also
have patients, people who are on life support and other vulnerable groups. They
need to be airlifted to safety or to places where they can receive requisite
medical care. As a national airline, we have diverted many of our aircraft on
non-core sectors for this purpose as sea transport is not safe at this time. As
fellow citizens, I hope you understand the challenge we are facing and the need
to stand up with people who deserve our help”. The moment he said this, I was
terribly embarrassed at my outburst. It set me thinking about how the social
service activities of public sector companies go unnoticed.
· For all its weaknesses, the Election
Commission indeed tries to ensure that a voting center is always within the
reach of each and every citizen, be it the desert, water or mountains.
· BSNL may today be a loss making company
but that’s because it put service above profits at all times. They spent money
in erecting towers and creating infrastructure to ensure that even remote
villages get access to telecom services. Like private companies, if they had
put profit above all else, many parts of our country would have been in telecom
darkness even today.
· Government banks have branches or extension
centres across villages and small towns in India. It costs a lot of money to
maintain these branches and to provide banking services to the resident
population. If the banks were to put profits above everything, then a big chunk
of rural India would have had no access to banking services even today.
· Coming back to the example of Indian
Airlines (now Air India), all what we talk or remember is the high handed
behavior of staff. But, does everyone know that Air India does not have
complete freedom in the way it operates for being profitable. Non profitable
routes have to be flown to ensure air connectivity to remote areas, aircrafts
have to be diverted for any national disasters or emergencies, for international
travels of PM, President and dignitaries, commercial aircrafts are diverted and
very often, payments are not made for ages.
I would like to delve on the subject of Air
India for a little longer. I have briefly explained a few reasons why Air India
is in the position it is in today. Let me throw a little more light and
possibly, that will change your views.
a) Slots in airports are a prized commodity,
as it allows airlines to operate more flights or add capacity. As number of
slots in an airport are limited, airlines fight for this limited capacity. The
slots which belonged to Air India were surrendered to private airlines by
successive governments thereby preventing Air India from leveraging the
available capacity.
b) Even in case of agreements with airlines
of other countries, where both parties agree to a certain capacity permitted
for airlines of each country, the government (especially in BJP governments …
please check records if you wish) of India has accepted a lower number of seats
for Air India. This just does not make sense … why would a country not want its
national airline to benefit from capacity in a particular route.
c) In the airline industry, size of network
is a competency for any airline. Bigger the network, stronger the reason to fly
an airline. This in turn means more profits but the government kept on dragging
its feet when Air India wanted newer, fuel efficient aircrafts for its fleet.
They were still operating older, fuel inefficient aircrafts which obviously meant higher operating costs. Additionally,
without enough aircrafts to service capacity on international sectors, Air
India was losing out on potential sources of revenue.
d) The profitable gulf sector was earlier the main domain
of Air India. By allowing Air India certain privileges on these routes, the
government was allowing Air India to compensate themselves for the social service
they render otherwise. Even this tiny privilege was slowly taken away from
them.
To be fair to Air India, it has for long kept on
asking for level playing field with private and other airlines. But, surprise,
that is exactly what Air India does not have. Now, the most often repeated complaint
about Air India workforce rudeness, inefficiency etc. You will be surprised
about the fact that there are as many people who have positive experiences as
negative experiences, just like any other airline. But, in case of Air India,
they get over amplified needlessly. Now on the question of excess staff … yes,
they have excess staff compared to other airlines because the whole operation
of running the airline, managing aircrafts, technical support is in-house. In
private airlines, most of the staff is outsourced. That’s because these are
older staff who were recruited at a different time and in different conditions.
In the last ten years, Air India has been very slow on recruitment. It is
actually facing a staff shortage in certain roles and once the current lot retires,
the situation will be even worse for Air India.
So, as I explain a situation is being deliberately created
by the government to ensure that Air India does not prosper. Conditions are
being created to give the public an impression that Air India is wasting taxpayer
money and that privatization is the only answer. I would like readers to not
just read what I have written but take the trouble of finding out facts before running
down the airline.
Similarly, many other public sector companies are
being deliberately run down by the current government so that a case can be
created for disinvestment, even where none exist. These profitable government
companies and their assets will be transferred to private players for their
benefit. The public will be shown that government is doing away with loss
making companies whereas in actuality it is allowing transfer of benefits which
could have been made by the government to crony capitalists. We all need to protest
this mindless privatization without giving the government sector its due recognition.
a)
Recently, six new
AAI airports have been privatized, with all six going to the Adani group who
otherwise have no experience in airport management. As far as I know, AAI was
not even allowed to bid for these airports.
b)
An old story, but
relevant, in 1999, VSNL was privatized and sold to the Tata group by Vajpayee
government for something around 1000 crores. At that time, VSNL had more than
1000 crores in its bank accounts and more than 3000 crores of real estate
across the country
c)
In Godavari
basin, in gas blocks, Reliance Industries was drilling gas even in areas where
it had no license to. It has siphoned off hundreds of crores of government property
without paying due royalty.
My point is very simple. Rather than simply
privatizing why don’t you give government companies a fair chance to compete,
survive and contribute to the country.
No comments:
Post a Comment