The need for safe and efficient air service

I write this at noon on Monday, part of the exigencies of a columnist – and the mystery of the missing Pawan Hans helicopter carrying Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu may be resolved by the time it appears in print: we can hope for the best while preparing for the worst.

A few days ago, when its flight from Guwahati (April 19) crashed on the lip of the helipad at Tawang, Pawan Hans angrily rebutted criticism about flying reportedly unsafe aircraft and poor maintenance as hogwash. Today, the helicopter service has suspended its operations in the North-east, affecting Meghalaya and Arunachal, although the government corporation maintained that top politicians and officials had used the new aircraft (a Eurocopter-built AS350 B 3) which was in “perfect condition” without any problems in the past four months.

However, Khandu’s adviser Kiren Rijiju – the outspoken ex-MP from the BJP who has joined Congress – has described the company’s maintenance capabilities as “erratic”.  The knives are out for Pawan Hans and investigations into its past crashes and its maintenance record need to be made public. After all, it is a public company which runs as a result of Government funding, which in turn comes, at least in part from tax payers.  So we have a right to demand accountability on performance, especially since it involves the lives of people, big and small, politicians and members of the public.

The thumbs down on Pawan Hans’ safety record also comes from none other than the Central Government, whose two ministers (including V. Narayanaswamy, who is a Minister of State in the PMO) chose to travel by road to Itanagar, a journey that can take not less than 6-to-8 hours along stretches of a notional, “national” highway that can be mildly described as shabby, incomplete and bumpy.

I hope the Ministers get a good idea of the torture that thousands of passengers who travel by road every day and night on that highway have to go through: the beauty of the landscape doesn’t quite make up for it. They should, as a result of the ride, report back to the Prime Minister who is from Assam but has little idea about life and conditions there or elsewhere in the region and also tackle the Surface Transport Ministry on its failure to improve road conditions in the region.

The Assam Government also needs more than a rap across its knuckles for its abysmal failure on road infrastructure; it needs a kick you know where. According to a top road engineer, the state government is completing projects this year which should have been finished in 2005-06.

And that is where a crucial air link in the form of either a safe helicopter service or a short haul, small plane service is so important for the hilly terrain of the states around Assam, where road journeys are long and exhausting and often disrupted by bandhs, broken sections and poor vehicles or reckless driving (the Guwahati-Shillong highway is an example of the last).

That such a service is possible is seen in the example of an enterprising lone woman aviator in Mizoram (unpublicized, she’s doing, according to all accounts, a superb job with a single aircraft, quick turnaround and low cost). It is desperately needed in the North-east – to connect those who need to travel quickly and give those who can afford to do so the option. But weather variables, safety conditions as well as top class maintenance must be built into the process.

A safe, competent service is what is needed – that’s the minimum assurance that is required.

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The second issue I want to discuss here is the whole debate about civil society, Anna Hazare and the Irom Sharmila issue – why did the Centre “give in” to Hazare’s demands after four days of his fast and middle class urban angst in New Delhi, Bombay and elsewhere while Sharmila’s battle for a decade has fallen, not just on deaf ears, but also met with a deafening refusal from the Centre, especially the army.

Thus, for those who side with Hazare and agitate long and hard for the rights of people, there are a few issues that are worth reviewing in Assam and the North-east before rushing to his support and ignoring the real issues. Let me quote what I have written elsewhere:

“Irom Sharmila criticizes the Centre for “double standards” when dealing with someone like Anna Hazare, who could mobilise support from middle class India because of widespread anger over the untrammeled corruption of politicians and their handpicked babus. An activist says that while Mr. Hazare was lionised after four days of a fast, Sharmila is treated as a criminal (She still is in judicial custody and is produced before courts to extend her incarceration, although a relay hunger strike by women activists of the “Save Sharmila Group” crossed 1,000 days recently.)

“We should ask: Why? Because Hazare was not challenging the legitimacy of the State, he was voicing an anger felt deeply over the corruption that had eaten into the heart of India; he questioned the legitimacy of those who represented the State, not the State itself. Sharmila is going far beyond his limited demand. She challenges the very nature of the State (and that is the issue before every major movement in the region – the legitimacy of the State is challenged and tested). And that’s why New Delhi or Imphal can’t handle her. I wonder if Anna Hazare, a former soldier, will support her struggle for justice for the tens of thousands who have suffered at the hands of the security forces in the region for over 50 years. In 2004-05, I was a member of the Jeevan Reddy Committee set up by the Prime Minister to review the Act: we demanded its repeal. The Centre hasn’t had the courage to disseminate or debate it.”

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Some years ago, I took a visiting delegation from South-east Asia, including a Thai Member of Parliament, to dinner at the Paradise restaurant in Guwahati, which prides itself on serving “authentic” Assamese cuisine.    The MP, Surin Pitsuwan, is now Secretary-General of ASEAN and they enjoyed that meal. The Bezbaruah family, which owns Paradise, has opened an outlet called Jokai in New Delhi’s Assam Bhawan.  So some days ago, a couple of relatives went with me to Jokai.  We ordered Rou masor tenga and Pabo masor sor sori.  We were terribly disappointed: the pabo maas was smelly and bad. The staff was bored and surly.

We complained to the restaurant manager who spoke in Hindi.  He checked with the kitchen and came back to announce that the fish was “fine,” since  it was brought “in the afternoon”! Anyone who knows fish knows that it’s the first thing you get in the morning.

Paradise needs to stop taking its customers for granted: the quality of a restaurant does not depend on its past reputation but on ensuring the best ingredients, quality and service. These are tested every day, at every meal. The customer may not be a hard task master – but he would like fresh food, especially if he’s paying for it.

 

By Sanjoy Hazarika