‘The Problem Is The Manner In Which IA & AI Are Allowed To Function’ - Nilotpal Basu

Bhisham Mansukhani - Mumbai

Air-India and Indian Airlines, which have often been criticised for the manner in which they function, now have a saviour in the form of Nilotpal Basu, chairman, Parliamentary Standing Committee on transport, tourism and culture. Recently he took up the issue of public sector owned airlines.

He said that the problem was not with ownership, but with how the public sector carriers are being allowed to work by the government. "There are many successful airlines in the south-eastern region which are government-owned carriers. But there is a difference in the manner in which, say, Singapore Airlines functions and the way Air-India or Indian Airlines is allowed to function. So the problem is not in the character of ownership but in the manner of functional autonomy that is accorded to our government companies. I hope there is a merger of these two airlines to create an even playing field for public sector airlines companies vis-à-vis private sector companies that have been allowed to fly both international and domestic flights," he said.

Another major area which Basu touched upon was the integrated transport policy when it comes to low cost carriers, which has often been targeted by the industry as being insufficient. He said, "We are not missing an integrated transport policy. We should not look at a segment of aviation becoming a competitor to other modes of transport. While we may have ideas, we cannot address the kind of issues we are being faced with unless we can bring all the components of all the modes of transportation together into a smooth and seamless integrated network. So, aviation has to be seen in a larger perspective."

Another area which Basu touched upon was that of comparison with China. According to him, with India being often compared with China when it comes to emerging markets in most areas including tourism, it is time for those comparison makers to take a look at the political system of both the countries.

He said, “The comparison is more of a mechanical kind. I have often heard references made to China when it comes to tourism and our far depleted performance in front of them. I think we should first consider the political systems of both the countries, which are completely different. We have to see if we can leverage where our strength lies, which is our vibrant political system where there are multiple political parties and more democratic process of decision making."

He stressed on evolving a mechanism within the decision-making process, so as to get to a consensus. "It is right to have fierce debates on policy-making in the country and the existence of a parliamentary standing committee is a great contribution to the decision-making process in the country. We can compare ourselves to China, but just as they try to leverage on their strengths in terms of governance, we have to do the same. Comparison of mere mechanism of the two countries cannot help," he said.