FOCUS Soon after I joined I had to take a stand on a very tricky issue. My predecessor Yogesh Chandra had blessed a proposal of the Air India Board to allow free travel to all directors of Air India with family for their whole life. There was some criticism of the move before I joined. The resolution of the Board had already been approved by my predecessor. I summoned the file and recorded an adverse note and resubmitted the case to the Minister. He was good enough to agree, but I am sure I made several powerful enemies with this one decision. The first thing I noticed was that the country did not have a Civil Aviation Policy. I spent the first two months grappling with day-to-day issues, but part of my mind was always on the evolution of a policy. Two months into the job, I called a meeting of all the senior officers in the ministry and our public sector undertakings. “Why do we not have a Civil Aviation Policy?” I asked them pointblank. There was a pregnant silence. I had probably asked a childish question and they did not know how to say something without sounding rude. The truth came out in bits and pieces. Probably, no one had tried hard enough or long enough. I wanted to know whether they had worked out a policy for their respective sectors. There were elements of policy spread all over the department, but these had not been strung together into a policy document. I gave them two weeks' time to come up with those elements of policy which already stood cleared and elements which according to them deserved inclusion in the policy document. When we met after a while, I found that not much progress had been made. There is an inherent mental block which prevents us from thinking over new initiatives. I could see that there would be no policy even in my time, if I let them off the hook. Suddenly, I found myself saying, “Gentlemen, I am going to try an experiment with you. We shall continue to sit here in this committee room till we have hammered out a draft policy. It may take one day, two days, three days or even more. Food will be served here. You can call for officers and papers from your offices, but no one can leave the room till we have achieved our objective. At the end of our labours, we shall conclude in the manner in which the Pope is elected by the Collegium of Cardinals, with a puff of smoke.” At first, they thought it was a joke. But when they found that I was serious, they
54
I K Gujral
C M Ibrahim
One of the last decisions taken by the outgoing Deve Gowda government had been to disallow such contribution in new proposals. This would block the Tata proposal effectively. Jet was given a time of six months to buy back the equity from its foreign contributors. CRUISING HEIGHTS May 2012
started exerting. I do not remember how long it took. Probably within 36 hours we had a draft policy document. I asked the draft to be circulated as a confidential document, stating clearly that it had not been approved and it was just a paper for discussion. But as is customary in government, there are too many stakeholders with different interests. Someone leaked out the document and the next thing we knew was that it was in the press. Now there was one particularly sensitive paragraph in the draft. When privatization of airlines was permitted, several airlines were established. Only Jet Airways survived. Jet had come up with 40 per cent equity contribution by two airlines from the Gulf. The Tatas had mooted a proposal for a private airline with 40 per cent equity contribution from Singapore Airlines. As this would have been a formidable competitor, Jet tried hard to upset the rule regarding foreign equity contribution. One of the last decisions taken by the outgoing Deve Gowda government had been to disallow such contribution in new proposals. This would block the Tata proposal effectively. Jet was given a time of six months to buy back the equity from its foreign contributors. Now one of the paragraphs in the new draft policy related to the allowing of 40 per cent equity contribution by foreign airlines even in new proposals. This was seen by Jet as a victory for the Tatas. If approved as policy, it would enable favourable consideration of the Tata proposal. Ibrahim was not happy. He called me and wanted to know why such a para had been proposed when it went against the present policy approved only three months back. I told him that this was just a suggestion made by someone. It was not part of the draft, as no draft had been made. He was not convinced. Probably, Jet people had told him that I was trying to show undue favor to the Tatas. After a few days, we held another meeting and produced the tentative draft of a civil aviation policy, which did not have the offensive paragraph. The minister did not clear the file, despite several attempts on my part. The history of civil aviation in this country would have taken a different trajectory, if Tata Singapore Airlines had been allowed to float an airline. After a while, it occurred to me that the policy on airports was less controversial and it could probably be separated out. We did that. This document was cleared at all the levels, including the Cabinet. I had the satisfaction of having the policy printed and circulated before I demitted office.