Before questioning Mallya should we also ask why not also question Air India.

This is probably the best time for the aviation industry not only in India but the world over. Almost all well managed Aircraft operators have been making profits thanks to the low crude prices for the last couple of years and the story is no different in India however there is one exception to this and the company that has not been able to become profitable in such benign conditions is the state carrier Air India. It is well known fact that Air India has been a sucker for public funds for many years and every other government has only diverted money into Air India from other key social projects just to keep the Airline floating or rather flying.

What we have witnessed in the last few months in terms of the banks going after Mallya who owes banks a sum of 9000 crs is a welcome step but going by the same logic the banks should have also gone after Air India whose combined debt runs into more than 40000 crs. Why arent the public sector banks taking this step , why arent they held accountable for the huge debt that Air India is sitting on. The close nexus between politics and the Babudom exposes this truth.

Old private air carriers like Jet and even the relatively new ones like Indigo or even Spice jet have figured out what needs to be done to remain profitable but Air India inspite of being present for decades hasnt still got the right mix . Even if Air India is closed down it will not impact the Airline industry in any way as the market share of Air India is only about 15% which can be made good by the private players.A bloated organization like Air India will continue to extract money as we have seen in the past and all the half hearted attempts to make it professional have gone down the drain.Unpaid vendors , pending bills from the Government , improper route planning are ailing problems that have now become legacy problems with the Airline.

In in current form with its networth being wiped off years back no investor will want to touch the company, the only way forward is to write off all the debt and start of on a clean state and make it favorable for private operators to invest in the company. The airline has been around for a while now and has a huge fleet with experienced staff, alliance partners across major routes and also all necessary permissions at major international airports. It is up to the Government on how they will want to capitalize on this while inviting bids from private players. It is high time Government gets out of the business of running airlines if for any strategic reason they might want to still hold a stake it should be limited to about 15-20% and the rest should be offloaded to public or private investors.

The Narendra Modi Government's recent election victories have given it a thumping majority to push forward such reforms and it is time they bite the bullet .