Self declared comedian Kunal Kamra was shown the door by prominent airlines as he was found heckling popular journalist Arnab Goswami on board an Indigo airlines flight bound from Mumbai to Lucknow. Following the announcement by Indigo to suspend him from flying on board their flights for a period of six months, airlines like Air India and Spice Jet also followed suit, suspending Kunal Kamra from flying on board their respective flights until further notice. Kunal’s example is also a lesson for those people, who often take their celebrity status for granted.
For those unaware, Kunal Kamra recently uploaded a video of himself on his Twitter account, where he was seen heckling and yelling at Arnab Goswami, who was calmly sitting on his seat, with his earphones on. Kamra claimed that he did this in tribute to Rohith Vemula, a leftist student whose suicide in 2015 had created a political storm. To quote Kunal’s own tweet, “I did this for my hero… I did it for Rohit” –
However, Kunal’s antics had created a lot of nuisance, which led to a delay in the flight. Despite the crew’s warnings, Kunal refused to give up. Following this ugly incident, Kamra was handed a six month suspension by Indigo, followed by Air India, as well as Spice Jet suspending him from boarding their flights until further notice.
To quote Indigo’s tweet thread, “In light of the recent incident on board 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. 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.” –
@MoCA_GoI @HardeepSPuri In light of the recent incident on board 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. 1/2
— IndiGo (@IndiGo6E) January 28, 2020
Needless to say, some of the aghast supporters of Kunal Kamra (Yes, let that sink in) started trending Boycott Indigo on Twitter, demanding a revocation of the suspension. Some even targeted the aforementioned airlines for targeting Kunal Kamra, while letting off BJP politicians who were involved in the same.
However, it seems that most of the detractors have either not heard of Ravindra Gaikwad, or they don’t want the people to know about the same. In 2017, Ravindra Gaikwad had misbehaved with the staff of Air India, and had even assaulted one of the crew members. Following that, Air India and 5 other airlines had banned him from boarding their flights until further notice. This happened despite the fact that Ravindra Gaikwad was a Member of Parliament, and he belonged to Shiv Sena, which was then a member of the ruling faction of NDA. Hypocrisy much?
Moreover, the action against Kunal Kamra also serves as a lesson to those celebrities, who believe that they can do anything onboard a flight and get away with it. There have been previous instances as well, where some celebrities have misbehaved on board flights and have faced little to negligible action for the same.
A couple of years ago, singer Aditya Narayan was found misbehaving with the crew of Indigo. He even abused them as well, and was let off only after issuing a conditional apology. Even celebrities like Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Katrina Kaif and Ranveer Singh have been accused of throwing tantrums on board a flight, misbehaving with the flight attendants for not meeting some of their absurd demands.
As such, the decision to suspend Kunal Kamra from boarding flights of Indigo, Air India as well as Spice Jet is not only a welcome step, but also a stern lesson for wannabe celebrities who think that they can show tantrums and get away with it.