Pradeep Kharola’s appointment as executive adviser to Air India’s chairman has produced one of those moments that students of public policy can savour. For decades, economists, reformers, and management experts maintained that Air India’s troubles stemmed from government ownership. The solution, according to them, was privatisation. After years of debate and abandoned plans, the airline was finally returned to the Tata Group in 2022. Four years later, as Air India navigates a challenging phase, it has turned to a former civil aviation secretary and former Air India chief for help. One is tempted to conclude that the wheel has not merely turned. It may have completed a full rotation.
This is not about Kharola. Nor is there anything unusual about companies hiring former bureaucrats, regulators, or policymakers. Every major industry does it. What makes the episode interesting is the symmetry. Public policy debates often proceed on the assumption that solutions lie in ownership structures. If a government enterprise struggles, privatise it. If a private company stumbles, regulate it more aggressively. If performance disappoints, redraw the organisational chart. Yet organisations have a curious habit of seeking help from precisely the systems they are supposed to have left behind. Theories may favour neat distinctions between public and private. The real world appears considerably less ideological.
Consider BSNL. As the telecom operator’s fortunes deteriorated, a committee led by Sam Pitroda, with Deepak Parekh among its prominent members, was tasked with charting a turnaround strategy. The recommendations sounded distinctly private-sector in flavour: professional management, greater autonomy, market-linked incentives, outside talent, and a more commercial approach to running the business.
The message was clear. If ownership could not be changed, behaviour could. The company should think more like a private enterprise even while remaining firmly in government hands. Ownership, however, remained untouched. Then came Vodafone Idea, which offered an equally entertaining twist. For years, policy commentators held that governments should reduce their role in business. Yet when one of the country’s major telecom operators found itself under severe financial stress, the government converted dues into equity and emerged as its largest shareholder. Suddenly a private company found itself relying on public ownership to survive. Somewhere along the way, ideological purity quietly left the room.
Perhaps this is because ownership has always been a more convenient subject than management. It is easier to debate privatisation than execution, easier to discuss governance models than leadership, and easier to prescribe structural reform than build institutional capability. As a result, public discourse often swings between two certainties. One decade, the private sector is presented as the answer to every problem. The next, the virtues of state intervention are rediscovered. Reality, meanwhile, carries on with little regard for these intellectual fashions. Governments hire consultants from industry. Industry recruits former bureaucrats. Regulators move into corporate boardrooms. Corporate executives join government committees. Everyone eventually ends up seeking wisdom from the other side.
Which brings us back to Air India. There is a certain charm in the fact that one of the most celebrated privatisation stories has reached a stage where experience from the government system is once again considered an asset. Not because privatisation failed. Not because bureaucracy triumphed. Simply because large organisations are complicated creatures and expertise is often found in unexpected places. Economists may continue debating ownership structures and management theorists may continue searching for the perfect organisational model. Yet the evidence keeps pointing in a different direction. BSNL sought private-sector wisdom through the Pitroda-Parekh blueprint without privatisation. Vodafone Idea acquired a government shareholder without nationalisation. Air India, after privatisation, has recruited a former civil aviation secretary to help navigate its next phase. Perhaps public and private are not opposing camps after all. They are more like neighbours who keep borrowing sugar from each other while insisting they have nothing in common. The rest of us get to enjoy the déjà vu.