Most of what the Comptroller Auditor General of India (CAG) has now reported on the Air India merger has been public knowledge thanks to the media (“CAG blames ministry for AI mess,” July 9). This merger is a fit case study to illustrate the dangers of an ill-planned merger. The accumulated losses have already crossed Rs 15,000 crore and there is no hope of even a short-term recovery in sight. Yet there has been no detailed debate on this ill-fated merger even once in Parliament.
The decline in ministerial vision and leadership is another cause of concern. Fifty-five years ago, our nation had successfully founded the Life Insurance Corporation of India by merging as many as 243 private insurance companies in a short period of time solely because of ministerial vision and leadership accompanied by the able involvement of the civil services in managing a successful integration process. It is the absence of these essential traits in the current generation of ministers and civil servants that is the cause for the dismal situation of Air India.
S Subramanyan, Navi Mumbai
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