Passenger carrier IndiGo on Tuesday said that it has barred stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra for six months for portraying “unacceptable behaviour” onboard one of its flights.
It has been alleged that Kamra, while travelling on a Mumbai-Lucknow IndiGo flight, provoked a TV news anchor by asking questions over news presentation style.
Following IndiGo’s announcement, Air India also barred Karma from flying on any of its flights until further notice.
“In light of the recent incident onboard 6E 5317 from Mumbai to Lucknow, we wish to inform that we are suspending Mr. Kunal Kamra from flying with IndiGo for a period of six months, as his conduct onboard was unacceptable behaviour,” IndiGo tweeted.
“Hereby, we wish to advise our passengers to refrain from indulging in personal slander whilst onboard, as this can potentially compromise the safety of fellow passengers,” the airline added.
Reacting to the incident, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri tweeted: “Offensive behaviour designed to provoke & create disturbance inside an aircraft is absolutely unacceptable & endangers safety of air travellers.
“We are left with no option but to advise other airlines to impose similar restrictions on the person concerned.”
On his part, Kamra posted a statement on his Twitter handle which read: “Today I met Arnab Goswami in a flight to Lucknow, and politely asked him to have a conversation. At first, he pretended to be on a phone call. I waited for his so called phone call to get over. Seatbelt signs were off at this time. I gave him a monologue about what I felt about his ‘Journalism’. He refused to answer any questions, he called me ‘mentally unstable’.”
In another tweet, Kamra said: “Thank you Indigo a six month suspension is honestly very kind of you… Modiji might be suspending Air India forever.”
