'Sure, Air India will soon become profitable. Jai Hind': Twitterati, politicians et al react to airline's nationalist stance

To keep the josh of the near-bankrupt Air India high, the airline has issued a circular to its crew, asking them to say “Jai Hind” after every in-flight announcement “with much fervour” and after a “slight pause”. Officials have also been quoted  as saying that the current advisory is a “reminder” to the staff in the wake of the “mood of the nation”.

“With immediate effect, all (crew) are required to announce ‘Jai Hind’ at the end of every announcement after a slight pause and much fervour,” read the advisory issued by Amitabh Singh, Air India’s director of operations.

This isn’t the first time that the national carrier has decided to induce patriotic fervour among its staff and flyers. The new directive comes days after Ashwani Lohani took charge as Air India’s chairman and managing director once again. During his first stint, too, he had issued a similar direction to pilots in May 2016.

“The captain of a flight should often connect with passengers during the journey and, at the end of the first address, using the words ‘Jai Hind’ would make a tremendous impact,” Lohani had said.

Tremendous or not, the current directive has drawn both sharp and humourous reactions from politicians and Twitterati alike. One of the sharpest came from former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti, who said the ‘Jai Hind’ directive was hardly surprising, considering the general elections coming up.

Little surprise that with General Elections around the corner, the josh of patriotism hasn’t even spared the skies. https://t.co/AyVvEPDU3u

— Mehbooba Mufti (@MehboobaMufti) March 5, 2019

Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi, on the other hand, took a jibe at the various efforts made by the BJP government to revive the cash-strapped national carrier, one among which was the compulsory chant of “Jai Hind”.

Under the BJP, guess what steps are taken by Air India to revive it's lost fortunes as India's National Carrier-
A. Monetization of assets
B. Better ticketing and sales
C. Compulsory saying of Jai Hind by crew
D. Selling it's stakes to private players

— Abhishek Singhvi (@DrAMSinghvi) March 5, 2019

In his earlier communication, Lohani had also asked Air India staff to be “courteous and polite” to passengers and said wearing a smile would be a “good thing”.

“The cabin crew should greet passengers while emplaning and deplaning with a ’namaskaar’ as is tradition. A smile on the face and conversing sweetly and politely without an iota of irritation would be a good thing,” he had said.

In one crisp tweet, writer Sadanand Ghume spoke about how governments should not manage airlines it cannot “run”, even though authorities often impose diktats on people as their cultural right.

Econ Right: Govt. shouldn’t run airlines. Cultural Right: Shout the slogan loudly! #AirIndia https://t.co/rXY20Xsy56 pic.twitter.com/w1Jezzs2mc

— Sadanand Dhume (@dhume) March 5, 2019

Similarly, businessman Harsh Goenka criticised the government for trying to make profits for the carrier with nationalistic chants instead of taking more concrete steps to keep it flying.

Now with this new move, I’m sure Air India will soon become profitable. Jai Hind! pic.twitter.com/5Am6UyiQPe

— Harsh Goenka (@hvgoenka) March 4, 2019

Those stealing the show, however, are the hilarious tweets — from suggesting chanting “how’s the josh” to saluting if one sees an Air India aircraft in the sky.

Filmmaker Ram Subramanian writes:

Or, this person’s suggestion to give “incentives” for sleepy or the generally never-alert passengers: