top of page

By:

Quaid Najmi

4 January 2025 at 3:26:24 pm

AI’s Maharaja smiles joyfully

All 30 grounded aircrafts now fly Mumbai : Air India’s Maharaja is all pleased as punch at 80. After years of huge costs and efforts, the last of the grounded 30 aircraft – inherited by the Tata Group during the privatization in Jan. 2022 – is now resurrected fully and took to the skies gracefully on Monday.   The aircraft is the gleaming VT-ALL, a Boeing 777-300ER, that was gathering grime since February 2020, and becomes the final among the two-and-half dozen aircraft that have been revved...

AI’s Maharaja smiles joyfully

All 30 grounded aircrafts now fly Mumbai : Air India’s Maharaja is all pleased as punch at 80. After years of huge costs and efforts, the last of the grounded 30 aircraft – inherited by the Tata Group during the privatization in Jan. 2022 – is now resurrected fully and took to the skies gracefully on Monday.   The aircraft is the gleaming VT-ALL, a Boeing 777-300ER, that was gathering grime since February 2020, and becomes the final among the two-and-half dozen aircraft that have been revved up and revived in the past few years, AI official sources said.   It marked a symbolic milestone for Air India itself - founded in 1932 by the legendary Bharat Ratna J. R. R. Tata - which once ruled the roost and was India’s pride in the global skies.   Once renowned for its royal service with the iconic Maharaja welcoming fliers on board, in 1953 it was taken over by the government of India. After years of piling losses, ageing aircraft, decline in operations and standards – almost like a Maharaja turning a pauper - it returned to the Tata Group four years ago.   This time it was not just the aircraft, the brand and the deflated Maharaja coming into the large-hearted Tata Group stables, but a formidable challenge to ensure that the airline could regain its old glory and glitter. Of the total around 190 aircraft in its fleet were 30 – or 15 pc – that had been grounded and neglected for years.   At that time, the late Ratan N. Tata had directed that all these valuable aircraft must be revived as far as possible and join the fleet. Accordingly, the VT-ALL, languishing at Nagpur for nearly five years, was ‘hospitalized’ at the Air India Engineering Service Ltd., its MRO facility in May 2025.   New Avatar Then started a thorough, painstaking nose-to-tail restoration of an unprecedented scale, in which over 3000 critical components were replaced, over 4,000 maintenance tasks executed, besides key structural upgrades like the longeron modification, engines, auxiliary power units, avionics, hydraulics, landing gears and almost every vital system was rebuilt or replaced.   After the repairs, the old aircraft was reborn, under the gaze of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation and technical assistance from Boeing, and the new ‘avatar’ jetliner emerged with the highest global safety standards.   The aircraft cleared all the rigorous checks, a successful test flight, earned the mandatory Airworthiness Review Certificate and then made its maiden commercial flight from Monday, March 16 – after a wait of six years.   Sturdy Fliers Created in 1946 to become an instant global icon, the Air India’s mascot Maharaja now sports a youthful and chic look, a welcome with folded hands, closed eyes, featuring a bejewelled turban, stylish jootis, and a textured kurta in Air India’s new colours. He is prominently visible at various touch-points in a flyer’s journey, such as First Class, exclusive lounges, and luxury products.   Today, he commands a mix fleet of around 190 narrow and wide-body Airbus and Boeing aircraft like : A319, A320, A320neo, A321, A321neo, A350-900 and B787-8, B787-9, B7770200LR, B-777-300ER. With the merger of Vistara and agreements signed for 10 A350 and 90 A320 aircraft, the Maharaja’s fleet is slated to soar to some 570 in the near future.

Slaying Demons

Each year, Dussehra offers a timeless lesson of the triumph of the good over evil. The effigies of Ravana, towering with their ten grotesque heads, symbolise the many evils humanity must overcome. For India today, those heads are all too real. From Pakistan’s continued sponsorship of terror exemplified in the barbaric Pahalgam terror attack to US President Donald Trump’s punitive tariffs, to the ever-pressing burdens of energy shortages and climate extremes - the country faces demons on multiple fronts. There is another Ravana lurking within in form of the Opposition’s persistent bid to fracture India along caste and religious lines.


The Pahalgam outrage in April this year where terrorists massacred Indian civilians by segregating them on basis of religion was a grim reminder of Pakistan’s unchanging playbook. The government’s response was swift: suspension of elements of the Indus Waters Treaty and targeted military operations – Operation Sindoor and Mahadev - to eliminate key terror operatives.


If security challenges are one set of heads, trade pressure is another. America’s tariffs of up to 50 per cent on Indian exports have unsettled markets, cut into jobs in textiles and gems, and exposed overdependence on a narrow set of buyers. Its stringent fee on H1 B visas have jeopardized aspirations of many Indian households. Yet under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India has sought to turn adversity into advantage. Fresh trade pacts with Europe and other blocs (including strategic convergence with our rival China), a renewed push for ‘Make in India’ and an expansion of digital and physical infrastructure all reveal a strategy of resilience.


India faces a more insidious domestic danger in form of an irresponsible Opposition, which has often peddled anti-India narratives instead of calling the ruling government to account on actual issues. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s relentless spewing of vitriol on the government while casting aspersions on the functioning of paramount bodies like the Election Commission has threatened to undermine unity at a time when India requires collective resolve to withstand foreign hostility and economic strain. By playing identity politics, the Congress and other parties of its ilk have tried to weakened the national consensus needed to sustain security doctrines.


Dussehra’s symbolism offers an answer. Just as Rama’s arrow felled Ravana not through brute force but through precision, India’s way forward lies in steady focus. Militarily, that means deterrence against terror sponsors. Economically, it means diversifying trade, fostering innovation and reducing dependence on any one foreign market. Politically, it requires rejecting the false narratives of caste warfare and affirming a unifying vision of development and dignity.


Modi’s government has shown flashes of that resolve. As the effigies burn tonight, the lesson is not only about good vanquishing evil but about vigilance. Demons reappear, sometimes in different guises. While one head wears the mask of cross-border terror, another wears the armour of economic coercion and the garb of domestic demagoguery. All must fall.

Comments

bottom of page