This refers to “Maharajah’s travails” (Weekend, May 26). While the pilots of Air India deserve to be criticised for going on strike at a time when total commitment was needed to save the company from disaster, let us not ignore others who are responsible for this impasse. There are several case studies that establish that the main cause for the failure of acquisitions and/or mergers is poor human resource planning rather than poor technological or financial planning. Yet the merger of Air-India and Indian Airlines was effected by Praful Patel, minister for civil aviation, with undue haste and without reconciling the different salary scales, ladders of promotion and job profiles of the employees. After the merger, little attention seems to have been paid to reduce these disparities before extending the duties and pay benefits of pilots of Air-India to those of Indian airlines without a quid pro quo for the former.
Besides, during the critical phase of transition of the two airlines, there is a need for continuity at the top level. So, the same minister who pioneered the merger should have seen it through the end. Instead, so far, we have seen three different ministers with three different approaches.
Y G Chouksey Pune
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