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The removal of Raghu Menon from the top job in Air-India came as a rude shock to him. He was on leave and was told a day before that the Cabinet Secretary was to hold a meeting to select a new person. In many ways,insiders say, he had it coming after the PMO and Finance Ministry complained about the lack of enthusiasm shown by the A-Is top management in pushing through the merger with Indian Airlines. In fact,the IT merger,one of the basics of any merger,had not been completed in two years. The Finance Ministry had complained that Menon had not come even once to push the airlines proposal for government financial support,and what was happening was only file pushing. While these were grounds officially used to justify the decision to remove Menon,the timing was still shrouded in mystery. With less than a month to go before a new government,the hurry in taking this decision left many confused.