Clearly, the Tatas are still to imprint their famed brand of hospitality on Air India. An economy class passenger traveling on the Delhi-Lucknow flight on 13 June was denied permission to use a clean lavatory accessible to business class passengers, despite complaining about a dirty and smelly toilet in the economy class. The sink of the toilet was clogged by some foul smelling vomit. The air hostess offered to cover up the smell with air freshener, but this only aggravated the puke smell, leading to a nauseous cocktail of vomit and air freshener. It’s high time that Air India staff realised that clean toilets are the basic right of every passenger. What was offered, instead, was ingenious advice on how to use the dirty toilet with trapeze like poses. To add insult to injury, the airvhostess offered the passenger some chocolates and a bottle of water to compensate for the lack of access to a clean toilet. If the Air India crew feels that chocolates can compensate for the absence of basic amenities then it has a long way to go before it can reach the high standards of Vistara. Why are the Tatas giving Air India such step fatherly treatment? The ownership may have changed but the standards remain the same.
THE RENAMING GAME
The Narendra Modi government’s move to rename Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML) as the Prime Minister’s Museum and Library has not gone down well with the Congress. However columnist, branding expert and a favorite Roundtable panelist on NewsX, Sandip Ghose came up with a solution of sorts. He tweeted : “The Imperial Tobacco Company became ITC Limited. The simplest thing would have been to change #NehruMemorialMuseumAndLibrary to #NMML Sangrahalaya. Leaving it to the people to interpret ‘NM’ as they wished: Nehru or… Later it could be expanded to its full form.” Another of his tweets recalled how the BJP started referring to the Nehru jackets as Modi jackets after he became PM: “Recall when #NarendraModi made these jackets popular there was a controversy on whether these were Nehru jackets or Modi jackets. Now does anyone even remember or care?” In fact I recall that in my book, The Contenders (published in 2018), Akhilesh Yadav had recalled how the toll gates of the Lucknow-Delhi Expressway (built by him when he was Chief Minister) were shaped A & Y. And then added with a smile, now these initials work for the current CM too. (For Yogi Adityanath is Y & A). That’s just the way the wheel of politics turns.
MODI GOVERNMENT’S DATE WITH 5 AUGUST
Will the Modi government bring up the Uniform Civil Code when the Parliament reconvenes for the Monsoon Session in July? After the Ram Mandir and the revocation of Article 370, that is the next big ticket agenda on the BJP manifesto. Interestingly, the revocation of Article 370 and the bhoomi poojan of the Ram Janambhoomi temple were both done on 5 August. While Article 370 pertaining to J&K was revoked on 5 August 2019, the bhoomi poojan took place on 5 August 2020. Which makes one wonder, if there is a special connect between this date and the Prime Minister. Even the law abolishing triple talaq was passed in the Monsoon Session, albeit on 31 July 2019. Does one expect another legislative storm this Monsoon—that is of course if Parliament is allowed to function, for both the Opposition and the Treasury Benches were daggers drawn in the last session.