No ammo in BJP’s missile against PM.

DNA; Vineeta Pandey; Sunday, August 7, 2011.

Strengthened by the flurry of CAG reports alleging corruption within the UPA, the BJP tried to open a new front on Saturday when its leader Rajiv Pratap Rudy alleged irregularities in the appointment of Air India’s CMD Arvind Jadhav.

But Rudy was perhaps a tad too quick in launching the attack because the papers that he flashed at a press conference in support of the allegations were accessed under the RTI Act and offered more noise than substance.

The BJP maybe on to something but that certainly wasn’t clear on Saturday. In fact detractors said Rudy was perhaps trying to address the Air India employees’ constituency and win their sympathy. The employees have been up in arms against Jadhav and with AI’s losses mounting, they hold the CMD responsible for the mess.

Rudy alleged that the current mess in Air India was because of Jadhav who was appointed as CMD without following the due process. Citing minutes of the meetings of a search committee for the selection to this post in March 2008, Rudy alleged that Jadhav was appointed despite lacking domain experience in civil aviation.

Rudy claimed that Jadhav’s appointment had resulted in a “financial mess of over Rs 74,000 crore” in the national carrier. He further wanted to know why the tenure of former CMD Raghu Menon was “cut short in just one year to accommodate Jadhav”.

Rudy quoted minutes of the selection committee meeting to say that Jadhav’s appointment was actually rejected in 2008 because the position involved complex administrative issues “in the area of personnel and finance management arising out of the merger of Air India and Indian Airlines and the consequent need for experience in the civil aviation sector”.

But, so far, Rudy’s contentions are not supported by the government’s replies furnished under RTI applications filed on Jadhav’s appointment. One such reply from the cabinet secretariat dated April 24, 2009 clearly records that the search committee recommended a panel of three officers, which included Jadhav, for appointment as AI’s CMD.

When contacted, Jadhav told ‘DNA’:“I have nothing to say as we only get the government order which we have to obey. I am not privy to the procedure and process the Government of India would have followed.”

Jadhav has been facing a lot of flak recently for the mounting losses of the national carrier and his inability to present a viable turnaround plan to the group of ministers constituted to look into AI’s troubles.