Following his mid-air heckling of television journalist Arnab Goswami on an IndiGo flight to Lucknow on Tuesday, stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra has said that at no point did he disregard the orders of the cabin crew. However, for his action, he has been banned from flying IndiGo for six months, while Air India, SpiceJet and GoAir “until further notice”. AirAsia and Vistara said they were reviewing the matter.
Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri had taken note of the incident on Tuesday and “advised” other airlines in India to impose similar restrictions on Kamra, stating “offensive behaviour designed to provoke & create disturbance inside an aircraft is absolutely unacceptable & endangers safety of air travellers”. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Wednesday said the action by the carriers was in complete consonance with its regulations.
The DGCA statement read, “This is to reiterate that the action taken by the airlines is in complete consonance with Civil Aviation Requirements (CAR) Section-3, Series M Part VI on Handling of unruly passengers. Now the matter is to be referred to the internal committee as prescribed in para 6.1 of the said CAR. Further, as per para 6.4 of the CAR, the internal committee is to give the final decision in 30 days by giving the reasons in writing, which shall be binding on the airline concerned. Punishment for different type of unruly behaviour is also prescribed in the same CAR and the internal committee has to adhere to the same.”
However, Kamra remained unfazed by the developments. “It’s not shocking at all to me that for exercising my right to speech, which falls under Article 19 of our Constitution, 3 airlines have given me a temporary ban from flying. Fact of the matter is that at no point was I disruptive and at no point did I not follow the orders of the cabin crew or the captain,” he tweeted.
“At no point did I endanger the safety of any passenger on board, the only damage I caused was to the inflated ego to the ‘journalist’ Arnab Goswami,” he stated. Kamra said he had not travelled with SpiceJet or Air India in this event and there is no “pattern of him being unruly”.
“This was the first time something like this has happened, so why have they jumped the gun and banned me? I've travelled SpiceJet and Air India in the past. There have been no complaints against me ever, only selfies and love has been shared by the crew,” he tweeted.
The comedian said as per his “limited knowledge”, no formal complaint was made by the crew, Goswami or anyone else aboard the (Mumbai-Lucknow) flight.
“Whenever there was an intervention by any member of the crew I complied. If expressing myself to an important public figure, who himself points a camera day in and day out, catching people off guard is a crime, then both of us are criminals," he wrote.
However, he did concede on Wednesday that his emotions had got the better of him on the previous day , even as he remained unrepentant for his actions, saying all he meant to do was express solidarity with the PhD student Rohith Vemula, who had committed suicide in January 2016.
He shared the link to an 11-minute video on Twitter, a compilation of multiple past incidents, and wrote, “The emotions did of course get the better of me (referring to the Goswami episode), but if I didnt emote, Id never be able to forgive myself.” He uploaded the video on his YouTube channel, which shows a Republic TV reporter confronting RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav on a flight despite repeated requests from him and the cabin crew to stop the camera and take a seat. Another clip shows a Republic TV reporter seeking a comment from Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar inside a restaurant where he is having his lunch. It also features a journalist shouting at a Republic TV reporter for alleged heckling.
Shortly after SpiceJet suspended him from flying with the airline, the comedian posted a sarcastic tweet: “Modiji can I walk yaan uspe bhi baan hai (Modi ji can I walk or is there a ban even on that),” punctuated with crying emojis.
