Air India CMD Arvind Jadhav faces sack?

New Delhi: Air India chairman and managing director, Arvind Jadhav, who was appointed to his post in controversial circumstances in 2009, may be on his way out, according to reports.  It may be recalled that last week he received a rap on his knuckles when he was asked to report back to Delhi on the same day that he left for the UK and Germany for meetings, even as the government was facing embarrassing moments in the parliament over the functioning of Air India.

Reports suggest that though he may be held accountable for his inept handling of the pilot's strike early this year, the fact of the matter is that embarrassing details have emerged through RTI revelations about his appointment as CMD of Air India, which are adding to the mountain of woes faced by a government that is already sinking under the weight of scams and scandals.

On Sunday, the country's principal opposition party, the Bharatiya Janata Party, alleged that a team headed by his principal secretary, TKA Nair, overlooked "proper procedure" while selecting Arvind Jadhav as the carrier's CMD.

In its first term the current UPA regime inexplicably chose to replace incumbent CMD, Raghu Menon, with Jadhav at a time when the election code of conduct was in place. According to reports, Menon refused steadfastly to sign a controversial ground handling deal with a foreign company and asked for a one- or two-year ban on flying rights for Gulf and south east Asian carriers so as to avoid revenue loss to AI.

Former civil aviation minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy released documents on Saturday to show that Raghu Menon's tenure was shortened as the dice was already loaded in favour of Jadhav. He further charged that the prime minister's office could not wash its hands of the controversy.

"Jadhav was not considered eligible for by a government panel. But a year later the same panel found him best suited to run the airline. The tenure of Menon was cut short to accommodate Jadhav, who the search committee itself had said lacked domain experience.''