Courting the Devil



Its sad news that high flying crew of India’s premier airline are now grounded. They had contracts which said that they could be sacked with immediate effect and that is what happened. While my sympathies rest with the employees, it is obvious that they hadn’t read the contract fully before signing. Even if they did, they never thought this would happen to them. None of us ever read our job contracts. The durability of our jobs is assumedly given and we simply sign on the dotted line. The only parts that we read are ones related to salary, role and title. The rest is legalese which is ignored, to one’s peril.
The sad part is how this incident has created space for that goon called Raj Thackeray to enter the civilized industry space. Starting with railway applicants, cab drivers, graduating to MERU cabs and now to airlines, the devil is making his footprint felt. Jet employees, are now courting the devil to their advantage. So educated, stable minded, courteous youth who smiled and served you on airlines are now relying on Mumbai’s political Goonda to find them succor. Raj of course, in true vitriolic style has proclaimed that he will ground all Jet flights. A few months ago, the same set of crew could have been discussing the high handedness of Raj Thackeray in how he was beating up north Indian migrants in the city. What’s ironic is that the same set of goons will now stand next to North Indian middle class crew members and shout slogans, or even throw stones at the Jet Corporate office.
This tells me about the spurious morality of our middle class. Not one to stand up for its own rights, it has always needed a walking stick. I would have admired the Jet crew if they, without any political backing of any kind had lodged protests and fought their own battles. Just as the Jet Kingfisher alliance looked so easy and convenient, so does this one between the crew and MNS. Loss of jobs is one thing, loss of morality another.

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