Why is the VT sign on aircraft in crosshairs – Times of India

Noting that “it is a policy decision”, the Delhi High Court on Monday refused to entertain BJP leader Ashiwini Upadhyay’s — a serial litigator — petition that sought the removal of the call sign ‘VT’ written on all Indian aircraft, calling it a “symbol of slavery.” The court, asking him to approach the government, saying “it is for the government to do.”
What’s the problem: Terming it as a remnant of India’s colonial past, Upadhyay’s petition mentioned that “the prefix ‘VT’ stands for ‘Victorian Territory and Viceroy Territory’, which is the nationality code that each aircraft registered in India is required to carry.”
Is that right? Yes. Each country is assigned a unique call sign to identify the aircraft registered in its territory. For example, the US has been assigned the call sign ‘N’ while Russia’s is ‘RA’. India was assigned its call sign during the International Radiotelegraph Convention of Washington, in November 1927. Since India was then under British occupation as its colony, the British chose VT, which stood for Victorian / Viceroy Territory. The British in fact set the call sign of all their colonies starting with V.
Was that the only option? No. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) allotted India three series of call signs from which it could choose one, with countries allowed to choose either the first one or first two letters of the series. ITU offered three series to India — ATA-AWZ, VTA-VWZ and 8TA-8YZ. The British chose VT from the second series and that stuck.
Is it permanent? Not quite. Some countries, such as Pakistan, which too had the same call sign as India, decided to choose AP from the series APA-ASZ that were newly allotted. India had made an effort during the UPA tenure to get either BA or IN, except that ‘B’ was already taken by China while ‘I’ was taken up by Italy.
And then there’s money: Each call sign is further subdivided according to the airline’s code. For instance, IndiGo’s aircraft have the call sign VT-IGS while for Vistara, it is VT-TTB. Since an aircraft isn’t allowed to operate without a call sign, changing a call sign means repainting all the aircraft of all the airlines as also change in all documentation related to the aircraft. In a debate on the issue in the Lok Sabha last year, minister of state for civil aviation V K Singh informed that till the markings are changed, “aircraft will remain grounded” which means loss of revenue for airlines.