Is Rahul Bhatia's IndiGo a house divided?

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Editor's note: Promoters don’t like unions. Over the years, innumerable companies have been brought to their knees by powerful trade unions and their leaders. Rahul Bhatia, IndiGo’s co-founder, knows that.  In the aviation industry itself, every time pilot unions at, say, Air India or Jet Airways before it was grounded, threatened to go on strike, the management has had to expend considerable time and resources to bring them around. Strikes, when they did happen, ended up costing the airlines in terms of cancelled flights, lost revenue and, by extension, a hit on their brand equity.  Bhatia wasn’t going to let anything of that sort to happen at IndiGo. In its 16 years, the country’s largest airline had managed to consistently grow its fleet, market share and cash flow, even as many of its competitors skidded off the runway.  So earlier this month, when there were increasing signs that some disgruntled pilots may call in sick or not report for duty, IndiGo responded swiftly. It suspended half a dozen of its pilots. The quick response, though not as per the industrial relations copybook, …