I have recently been suffering from what is called “writer’s block”.  That, coupled with two quick visits to New York and New Jersey have delayed adding to my Blog.  Hopefully, I will now get back to my routine.

The latest visit to the northeast was a very pleasant one.  We celebrated Diwali and the 3G birthday of which I had spoken in my last post.  Now, let’s come back to the narration of my lack of “bonding” with Mr. Raghu Raj.

After the incident of wines to be served and perfumes for sale where I was accused of insubordination and asked to leave his office, peace reigned for a short while until I received a visit from two persons. 

These two persons (I will refrain from calling them gentlemen) were sent down to see me by the CMD’s Secretary who merely stated that they were emissaries from “you know who in Delhi”.

I asked them to be seated and requested them to let me know what I could do for them.  They answered “appoint us your GSA in USA, Canada, the U.K. and Europe”, to which I replied “how about my job?  Don’t you want that too”.  The response was “you know who has sent us so let’s get down to the appointment”.

I asked them if they had a written proposal to which the response was in the negative.  They replied that they did not need to justify their demand as they were told by the “you know who in Delhi” that AI would grant the GSA without question.  At this time, I excused my self and went to Anil Kadam’s office and called the CMD.  He told me that orders had come down from the PM’s office to accommodate the request of these two characters and that I should do the needful.

I went back and told them that I would look at their request favorably if they would present a detailed proposal to which I was give a blank stare after which they left my office.

About ten minutes later, the CMD called me and said - let me make this clear.  We have to give them what they want and so issue them a letter confirming their appointment.  I requested an audience with him to indicate why the request would be difficult to accede to.  He agreed and I went up to the 22nd Floor.  I stated that:

1. We do not need a GSA in the USA, as under the laws of that country, we could offer any fare level we felt necessary and/or give any commission level to agents. If asked to justify, we would have great difficulty in explaining why we are paying an over-ride commission of 3% without any quid pro quo.
2. We had appointed a GSA in Canada only a few months ago and it would seem odd to make a change so soon without any justification.
3. We had a GSA in the U.K. whose appointment had been viewed and scrutinized very carefully by the former Aviation Minister himself and we were give a “clean chit”.  We would open up a Pandora’s Box if we now changed the GSA.
4. We could look at a GSA for certain European countries, provided we had a detailed project report justifying the need for such an appointment.

I got the distinct impression that I had finally made an impression.  Mr. RR became quite candid and explained that the instructions came directly from none other than Sanjay Gandhi and that only country that was in play was the U.K. The other countries and areas were asked for to camouflage the main issue.  Further, he had no alternative but to accede to the fiat from New Delhi. He also stated that the two had gone back to Delhi and that I should send the letter of appointment to the Regional Manager - Government Affairs in Delhi for delivery to them.

Accordingly, I wrote the letter and sent it to Delhi for delivery to the PM’s office.  I also called the RD - UK and told him of my predicament.

Before the letter could be delivered, some maneuvering had taken place and the emissary from the Delhi office was told that certain events had overtaken the situation and the letter of appointment could be cancelled.

It was only after I had resigned that I learnt the following:

1. One of the two characters was the nephew of one of the partners of our current GSA in the U.K. and there was no love lost between the two relatives.  The nephew was a close friend of the second character who, in turn, was a close confidant - read “chamcha” - of Sanjay Gandhi.
2. Our GSA learnt of the going ons behind the scenes and arranged to deliver a small suitcase full of cash to Sanjay Gandhi who decided to let matters lie.
3. The other partner of the GSA had been unaware of this exchange of cash and felt betrayed and the two partners had a falling out.

The entire episode was very upsetting and I had quite a few sleepless nights.  So much so, that my wife gave me a book to read; the theme of which was - you cannot fight City Hall.  It was her way of saying that it was time to call it a day and to pursue other interests.