Self-proclaimed comedian Kunal Kamra had heckled, hounded and misbehaved with Republic TV’s Arnab Goswami on board a Lucknow bound Indigo flight yesterday.
Taking cognisance of unruly behaviour risking passenger safety onboard a flight, minister of civil aviation Hardeep S Puri had stated that as per DGCA norms, Kamra should be banned from flying. Following widespread social media outrage and as per aviation safety rules, Indigo had declared that they are suspending Kamra from flying in their planes for a period of 6 months.
Later last night, Air India had also declared that Kamra will be suspended fro their flights until further notice.
Today, while returning in a GoAir flight from Lucknow to Mumbai, Kamra has reportedly repeated his behaviour. Arnab Goswami was travelling in that flight too, and Kamra, as per his own submission, tried to corner him again.
FYI – Arnab Goswami was in my
flight again this morning while returning from lucknow… I again asked him politely if he wants to have a honest discussion he with his verbal arrogant hand jester he asked me to move away & I did that…— Kunal Kamra (@kunalkamra88) January 29, 2020
According to a fellow passenger, Kunal Kamra had completed his security check a few minutes prior. He waited at the gate for Arnab Goswami and started hounding him again. Further, he followed Arnab to the bus ferrying passengers from the airport to aircraft. He stood in the bus and repeatedly asked Arnab to “answer him” and “talk to him”. Thereafter, Arnab Goswami is said to have told him to back off.
Though the co-passenger tells us that Kamra’s demeanour was far more apologetic this time as compared to the video put out earlier on account of what happened on the Indigo flight
Following this, GoAir has also declared that they have banned Kamra from flying in their planes until further notice.
GoAir has suspended Mr. Kunal Kamra from flying with the airline till further notice @MoCA_GoI @DGCAIndia @HardeepSPuri @IndiGo6E
— GoAir (@goairlinesindia) January 29, 2020
Prior to that, SpiceJet had declared that they have banned Kamra too. Kamra, in a tweet, has shared a note, defending his behaviour and stating that the suspension against him is unfair, claiming that he was not travelling in Air India or Spicejet so they cannot ban him for unruly behaviour.
It is not understandable why Kamra has been hell-bent on such deranged behaviour. However, in another tweet this morning, Kamra had himself declared that he has ‘stopped listening to his mind’ because ‘the mind is a coward’.
In September 2017, the government of India through Ministry of Civil Aviation had listed rules to tackle on-board disruptive and unruly behaviour by passengers which could put them on No-Fly List.
It is notable here that on-flight behaviour and passenger safety are monitored strictly on most domestic and international airlines and there are strict rules post the 9/11 attack in 2001.
