Unionised airport employees across the country holding all of civil aviation to ransom, with complete disregard for stranded air passengers, is precisely the kind of event that makes so many people wish India was not a ?soft state?, that it was a hard state where such disruptive behaviour could be crushed. The Airport Authority Employees Joint Forum, which has issued a call for a strike across 127 airports managed by the Airports Authority of India, is protesting the impending shutdown of the current Bangalore and Hyderabad airports, replacement facilities for which have been built by the private sector and are scheduled to start operating soon. The new Hyderabad airport will open on March 14, and the Bangalore one in mid-April (though it was earlier scheduled for March 30). By the terms of the contracts for these projects, the existing airports will cease to operate once the new ones are open. Airport employees see this as an encroachment by the private sector on what in their view is public sector territory, and have decided to block all flights everywhere in India until such time that their grievance finds redressal to their satisfaction by the civil aviation ministry in New Delhi.
The criticality of functional air services cannot be understated. That such employees are willing to strike work over the issue of airport privatisation only shows how irresponsible they are and how out of touch with the country?s prevailing development model, which favours efficiency over exactly the calcified mindset represented by those on strike. If India is to move on from the stranglehold of state control and give its citizens the service quality they deserve, it has to place itself in a position where such obstructionism obtains no rewards. This may take time, for full privatisation cannot be achieved overnight. In the interim, the civil aviation ministry must not surrender to the strikers. This does not mean the country must wield a big stick all the time. Private operations will eventually mean less frustration for passengers, and this will also curtail the appeal of authoritarianism. The public sector?s monopolisation of key services down the years has been a disaster for India. The old Hyderabad and Bangalore airports should be turned into car-racing tracks or flying clubs, and productive workers can be reabsorbed.
