Wish there were more Niira Radia-like tapes with regard to appointments of several other ministers in the hydra-headed UPA government. These ministers have also behaving like emperors in their respective domains showing little regard to the principle of accountability of the cabinet as also to the office of the prime minister. No one seems to be clearly in charge of this government.

The latest developments in the civil aviation industry concerning mind-boggling unilateral spot fare hikes by air carriers and the drama that followed smack all principles in the business and of governance. The cowboy-like behavior of the private operators of airlines on the domestic routes gave an impression that India’s economic reform has turned itself into a banana republic that empowers business oligopolies with total freedom to fix prices of their products or services at any level so that they can fully exploit any shortage situation to maximize profit. The fare hikes proposed on certain routes were 100 to 200 per cent more than the prevailing rates. The continuous noise created in the media against such an atrocious fare hike move by domestic airlines forced the Union Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel to act, finally. A half-hearted formula worked out by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation made the airlines agree on a symbolic cut in passenger fare hikes by just 20 to 25 per cent.

The UPA government as a whole did not react to this tariff reduction which, to many, was nothing but a total farce. Throughout this drama, which showed no concern for the common man’s pocket and the need for emergency air travel by people for urgent medical attention or for urgent visit to near ones or for job interviews, the Prime Minister’s office (PMO) maintained silence as if it were a non-issue and be better left in the able hands of the departmental minister. The PMO’s growing distancing attitude towards the common man’s concerns and public outcry against the strong industry-lobbyist-ministry nexus has further strengthened the individual positions of some of the ministers, who are operating more as agents of businessmen than the ordinary people on whose mandate they assume and exercise power.

Thanks to the departmental minister for civil aviation, who is holding the portfolio for the second successive term, the erstwhile national air carriers, Indian Airlines and Air-India, the country’s No. 1 air carriers until 2003 on both the domestic and international routes, have been nearly finished through a thoughtless merger and constant interference in its management. On the contrary, private carriers such as Jet Airways and Kingfisher were allowed to, first, consolidate and, then, to expand to long haul overseas routes in competition with Air India. The owners of Jet and Kingfisher are non-resident Indians (NRIs). They are here to make money. How are they any different from any other businessmen from any other friendly country? If the government truly believes in freeing its civil airspace to competition, it should have been done without such a rider that helps only a chosen few and denies others to be in the business.

What is wrong if foreign airlines come with genuine Indian partners with transparent equity structure along with those ‘overnight’ NRIs operating out of tax havens to serve the domestic routes? What is so holistic about the domestic airlines business being run by a few NRIs when all other so-called strategic areas of business in India including defence equipment and arms, aircraft manufacturing, shipping and ship building, micro-chips manufacturing, telecommunications and oil are controlled by overseas entities? International airlines are, anyway, permitted to operate out of as many as 10 domestic airports. India’s growing domestic air traffic can’t be allowed to be held hostage by a few private operators taking advantage of an illogical policy of the civil aviation ministry. Why should a minister be allowed to retain the same portfolio for two consecutive terms unless he or she is most technically suited or qualified for the post?

Frankly, it is not easy to argue out those who strongly feel that ministers in the petroleum and natural gas, petrochemicals, and environment are pursuing their personal agendas allegedly undermining the interest of the nation or the common man. The erection of dangerously tall buildings on south Mumbai’s Altamount Road and Cumballa Hills does not seem to concern the environment minister, who has been sitting on development projects worth over Rs. 2,00,000 crore in various parts of the country since he was appointed in the job. This country can’t have any more integrated steel plants, coal mines, iron ore mines, bauxite mines, petroleum refinery or even atomic power plants if the environment minister has his way, many feel. The environment minister’s continuous pro-US stance on India’s carbon emission commitments at international negotiations are hardly in favour of the country’s economic agenda. The questions being frequently asked is: what’s the union cabinet doing to rein in such hyper-active ministers and their anti-people decisions? What’s the PMO doing about it?

Unfortunately, under the present UPA government, the roles of both the union cabinet and the prime minister’s office (PMO) in the key decision making process seem to have vastly diminished. Andimuthu Raja openly challenged the prime minister’s authority by ignoring his suggestion on the 2G spectrum allotment. Even the Law Minister, Veerappa Moily, who until recently had been the least controversial among his cabinet colleagues, advised Raja on the spectrum issue apparently without keeping the Prime Minister and the union cabinet secretariat in the loop.

Although there is no question of the UPA chairperson’s vastly assumed power and authority in the affairs of the government without accountability, it is difficult to believe that the UPA boss is encouraging indiscipline among ministers by allowing them to seek personal consent on their vital actions above the head of the PMO and cabinet secretariat. It is possible that some of the ministers have been lying on their claim of close proximity to the chairperson and the boss’s blessings. Yet, the role played by Rahul Gandhi, a Congress general secretary and, in all probability, the prime minister-in-waiting, in igniting the passion of a section of Adivasis in Opposition-ruled Orissa’s Niyamgiri Hills against a Vedanta bauxite project to validate a controversial action earlier taken by the union environment minister raises suspicion of extra-constitutional authority in the UPA ranks undermining the roles of the union cabinet and PMO.

Shrewd and manipulative businessmen and industrialists would always like to see a weak union cabinet and an even weaker Prime Minister to push through their business agendas with the help of strong, defiant, unconventional and easily accessible individual departmental ministers, claiming private link to the top party powerful who is believed to control the government. Other less maverick businessmen are naturally at a disadvantage under such a situation. Many are also prepared to bribe ‘handsomely’ provided it works. But, they are also equally conscious of the eventuality of such illegal actions in case they boomerang. The stakes are naturally high. These fears are keeping the less aggressive businessmen from those top order touts in the government even as the more malleable ministers are having field day in their respective domains, regularly getting away with acts such as bypassing the cabinet, the PMO and the constitutional propriety, to pursue their individual objectives. A growing sense of frustration and dejection are creeping up among a vast section of enterprising businessmen as they lag behind the super-brats in the community in the pursuit of their business aspirations.(IPA Service)