Stop the hidden subsidy.

Air India, supposedly our national carrier has made a collective loss of Rs 280.46 billion between 2007 and 2012. TOI, 23 August. Between April and June 2012 a mere 16 out of a total of 184 routes that it flies have managed to meet their total cost and 9 services could not even earn their fuel costs. Yet till 2003-2004 it was profitable and made a profit of Rs 1.05 billion in that year. Today it has debt of over Rs 500 billion. Mr Praful Patel was Minister for Civil Aviation from May 2004 to January 2011. From April 2009 to April 2011 his personal assets are said to have grown from Rs 790 million to Rs 1.22 billion at the rate of Rs 500,000 per day. Even the highest paid football players do not earn that much. On 25 April 2010 Mr Patel's daughter, Avni was to fly from Bangalore to Male in the Maldives with her husband and in laws but there were not enough seats in business class. So Air India changed the plane from A 319 to a larger A 320 to accommodate them. On the outgoing flight 47 seats were empty and on the return flight on 28 April, when Air India pulled the same trick, more than 50 seats remained empty. In May 2005 the former Chief of Indian Airlines, Sunil Arora wrote to the then Cabinet Secretary, BK Chaturvedi that the Indian Airlines board was being pressured by Mr Patel and his OSD ( aide ) in taking critical commercial decisions. In his letter of 28 May, 2005 Mr Arora that decisions of the board were overruled, more planes were purchased than were necessary, Indian Airlines was not allowed to fly on viable routes to favor certain other operators and even " seating configuration " were changed to favor a particular aircraft manufacturer. Mr Arora implores the complaint to be kept secret and to be communicated only to the Prime Minister because ".... like every mortal, I fear for my personal and family safety ". He also wrote," During the last one year all board meetings of Air India, and even some board meetings of the Airport Authority of India have become a farce." Apparently the key words were " immediate and unquestioned compliance ". Indian Airlines and Air India were merged on 27 February 2011. In the light of all this the report by the Comptroller and Accountant General into the development of Delhi airport by a private consortium, Delhi International Airport Ltd, becomes clear. The CAG writes," It was noticed that Ministry of Civil Aviation and Airport Authority of India, on some occasions, violated the provisions of the transaction documents in the interest of the concessionaire." One such violation was allowing DIAL to charge passengers a development fee thus making an undue profit of Rs 34.154 billion. To cope with the economic mess one common refrain is to do away with various subsidies that the government doles out. The biggest subsidy is to politicians in the form of criminal loot of the people. But politicians are in charge. So how to stop it.