Why do we need Air India ?

We have a national bird, a national animal , a national game etc as we all have learnt in our school days. And we have a national airline. The Maharaja flies with pride – that is except the days the pilots are on strike or the pursers are on a mass casual leave or the ground staff is on pen-down agitation or when the maintenance staff have decided on mass sick leave. Except those three hundred odd days in a year, it roams the skies, albeit late.

The government is keen to keep it alive and kicking like many other government run institutions and there is a misplaced sense of national pride in this. And public money goes to feed these institutions. Whenever we have any discussion on privatization we are given statistics of the routes which the private run airlines will never run (read North East) or why we need a national carrier for air-lifting our citizens in times of crisis like war etc. Of course it also is required to be there for our ministers to travel.

I am not suggesting that it should not be there just because it is run by the government. I am questioning the prudence of its existence just because of its ownership and not by virtue of its performance.

Let’s look around a bit. I am yet to meet a German (and have met many of them so far) who is not proud of Lufthansa, the German national airline. However the airline is not owned by the government. It is completely private, an epitome of efficiency in most cases than not and is also mandated to rescue hapless Germans during a war or some such crisis. Yet it remains a private institution which carries more national pride in the heart of Germans than Air India does for Indians. National pride cannot be demanded by virtue of the ownership, it has to be earned by performance.

Right now, by virtue of its performance, the Maharaja, like many other institutions run by our government is terminally ill and running on public largesse. We are proud of some of our Navratnas , not because of their ownership , but because of their performance.

Ultimately at the end of the day, whether it is the government or government run companies, it is performance that counts. Everyone in India understands and acknowledges that. Except the government that is !