Air India privatisation: What happens when we forget first principles

I remember putting up an article entitled ‘Privatisation is the only option for revival of Air India’ to my boss at the Planning Commission in 2011 for permission to publish that article. It went through a number of desks, and finally to then-deputy chairman of the Planning Commission. Finally, permission to publish the article was denied as it was felt that a headline in a newspaper saying that ‘Plan panel feels that Privatisation is the only option for revival of Air India’ may not be appropriate. I was also told that my reasoning was based on first principles and, therefore, probably not deep enough for such a profound recommendation.