Mumbai, February 19
On the lookout for election issues, politicians in Mumbai have homed in on Air-India, which is now recruiting cabin crew.
The Shiv Sena, the Republican Party of India and several other politicians have expressed keen interest in AI’s recruitment of cabin crew. Of the 400 posts available across the country, 17,000 candidates, mostly women, have applied at AI’s Mumbai centre alone, say airline sources.
The Shiv Sena, whose wings have been active for long in the airline, is conducting grooming sessions for the women recommended by the party’s branches across Maharashtra. Shiv Sena activists attached to AI’s in-flight services are training the girls in the art of make-up, posture, and other tricks of the trade.
The party’s trade union wing at Air-India has even put up pandals where candidates and their escorts are provided with tea and snacks in addition to tips on bagging the job.
The party has now demanded that all members of the cabin recruited from Mumbai be from the city itself. Party MLA Gajanan Kirtikar, who heads the Sthaniya Lokadhikar Samiti affiliated to the Shiv Sena, told reporters here that the airline only recruits locals in other cities and a similar practice be followed in Mumbai as well.
Air-India officials, however, denied this and said applicants were free to apply at any of the recruitment centres.
The airline is recruiting crew at its Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Guwahati and Bangalore centres. In addition to fresh graduates, hotel executives, engineering students and even staff of other airlines are among the applicants. Only a handful of applicants who pass the beauty test are cleared for the written examinations.
Airline officials say about 30 per cent of the total applicants are chosen for the written test. In addition to the 400 staffers recruited directly, another couple of hundred shortlisted candidates would be absorbed when the airline expands its services, say sources.
Meanwhile, the Republican Party of India has accused a senior Air-India official of making casteist slur against applicants from backward classes. Activists of the party have filed a complaint against AI’s Director of Operations M.K. Haathi for allegedly saying that women from the backward castes were too unattractive to qualify as air hostesses.
Mr Haathi is accused of making this statement before a delegation of RPI activists earlier this week. However, he denied this even as the airline appointed an inquiry committee to investigate the allegations.
