Among all the reasons that have been advanced against businessmen entering politics, the chief among them has been the room it creates for potential conflict of interest. That the businessman may use his political power to promote his (or his friends’) business interests. Beedi baron Praful Patel as Civil Aviation Minister has drawn considerable attention given his close proximity to the controversial chief of Jet Airways, Naresh Goyal.
As if to prove the theorists right, the Parliamentary consultative committee attached to the civil aviation ministry, of which United Breweries and Kingfisher Airlines chief Vijay Mallya is a member, has opined that liquor should be served on domestic flights. Mallya was not present at the meeting where the advice was made, and the MPs have used the figleaf of grape farmers to justify their suggestion, but you have to be drunk not to be able to add one and one.
Questions: Should alcohol be served in the air like on international flights? Should all kinds of alcohol be served, or only Indian wine grown by Indian farmers? Should there be a limit on how much alcohol should be served per passenger? Is a “mile-high high” a good way of spending time on long flights? Or will it only spark boorish behaviour? Are the MPs using grape farmers as an excuse or do they really have their interests in mind?
And one for the air—is Mallya using his Rajya Sabha chair to further his business interests?
Why not? we should have Pot joints as well and Call Girls at service. There are no Adult xxx channels available on flights. only some Kids channel! how sad.
Living in a boys residential alcohol for five years has given me sufficient experience into this matter to say that Indian males coming with five feet of alcohol must be instantly jailed. Most Indian males (and let me add, quite a few females), believe that unless one gets properly smashed, there is no point in drinking. A very good way of ensuring population control in our country would have been to make liquor cheap so that a third of the male population is dead or dying by 30 due to binge drinking.
INtroducing liquor on board flights is a recipe for disaster. Expect sexual harassment complaints, expect emergency landings as drunk passengers attempt to take a leak “outside”, or just plain boorish behaviour making life for all passengers, hell.
Maybe Mallya should once fly in a flight full of drunk Indian men (he will be the only sober one) before he presses for permitting liquor on board aircraft.
No alchol on flights please…The grape farmers can be helped in other ways, if our friends are really serious
I miss those good old days…. The best one then was free-flowing East-West airlines. Can we have also have smoking lounge please?
allow ..no probs , just ensure that the drunks step out to pee
So what will they start serving as a snack, “Maharaja’s Special” instead of “Raja’s Special”?
Besides IC and PNR and such like abbreviations, will the fossils of Indian Airlines have to learn what KF and RC and PS stand for?
Will all the belching and burping save some aviation fuel?
Will the phrase “last order” take on a whole new meaning?
How much longer before we have a live band in mid-air?
Shouldn’t the airline have the freedom to make these decisions? Should Government butt in? Should you have to lobby politicians to innovate in your business? Shouldn’t consumers vote with their wallet?
That’s a nice idea. India needs a liberal government at the center. The ruling party is very islamic in its approach!! I don’t see liquor being served in the flights soon!
guys, liquor on domestic flight was banned in late 90s, they are now planning to re-open it…welcome it please, I need it.
Alok and others
It is true that some Indian men cannot hold liquor but that is no reason to go to extreme lengths to stop liquor being served on domestic flights! If Indians want to be taken as mature folk, they should learn to handle liquor. Even without liquor there is plenty of evidence to suggest that sexual harassment goes on everywhere.
I have no idea what SoulTruth is talking about–may be he might have had too much of hooch to drink at the time of posting!
I welcome liquor on all domestic flights.
Cheers
Aruna,
All of us need it! Let the liquor flow in friendly skies!
I forgot to add–even with many centuries of familiarity with alcohol there are frequent instances in the West of unruly passengers having a one-too-many drinks losing control. But that is the beauty of drinking–discover one’s inner mind. Thank you.
It is so darn obvious that Vijay Mallaya just wants to make some more money..his airline is bleeding..but is a flying billboard for his booze…and now make some extra bucks by selling his goodies at a premium in the skies..and the joke about helping farmers / tourism…who the heck are they kidding…?? strip them man..!
DB
Thanks for the support mate, looks like churumuri crowd is mainly uptight teetotalers. But I am sure, a bar will be their preferred choice for a tete-a-tete!!
As long as the taxes are being paid and some form of decorum is maintained, i dont think anyone should have a problem with yenne on board!