No one should fly Vistara because it hasn’t banned Kamra yet. Passenger safety doesn’t seem to be their priority

Kunal Kamra had on 28th January put up quite a show aboard a Mumbai-Lucknow Indigo flight, in which he verbally harassed and heckled prominent journalist Arnab Goswami. After a brief moment of stardom for the failed comedian, life took a rather harsh turn, and he found himself banned by four major airlines operating in India. These included Indigo, Air India, SpiceJet and Go Air. The ban on the potential threat of a man that Kamra is, came at the backdrop of the Civil Aviation MoS Hardeep Singh Puri condemning Kamra’s deranged conduct, calling upon all airlines to ban him to ensure the safety of passengers on all flights. However, two airlines – Air Vistara and Air Asia did not impose similar bans on the comedian.

This has raised alarming questions about the attitude of the said airlines towards passenger safety and ensuring a hassle-free flight for all aboard -bereft of random harassment by a lunatic like Kunal Kamra.

Air Vistara specifically has a lot of answering to do. An airline which likes to think of itself as the best in the Indian market can be so irresponsible so as to put thousands of its flyers potentially in harm’s way by Kunal Kamra? If anything, the video of Kunal Kamra clearly proves that he is so sick that he will pounce on anyone who has a view contrary to his and of his political masters. For Vistara to not act, despite him posing a grave security threat to many flyers reeks of sheer negligence on the part of the premier airline.

Air Vistara has a history of trying to please the left-liberal coterie of India. In April 2019, Air Vistara proudly shared a picture of its cabin crew with decorated war hero and famous TV personality Major Gen GD Bakshi. Their tweet read that they were honoured to have the decorated war hero onboard their flight. This resulted in a massive left-liberal outrage, as the Left has a particular sense of dislike towards Maj Gen GD Bakshi. As a result, they unceremoniously deleted the tweet. What followed next was a boycott call of Vistara by the Right. Vistara then issued a letter regarding the post, stating that the platform had no intention to hurt anyone’s feelings and be disrespectful to anyone.

However, the particular act of bringing down a post that honoured a veteran war hero does disrespect the army man and the Indian armed forces.

Vistara has had a history of cosying up and trying to woo the left-liberal brigade in India. Its recent inaction of not banning Kunal Kamra is an indicator of the same. Vistara, however, must realize that they may be putting many of its flyers in harm’s way, as what happened with Arnab Goswami may happen with any right-winger. It was only because of Arnab’s calm that the situation did not snowball into a severe brawl, which would have had unimaginable consequences. Again, not everyone would extend Kamra with a similar calm which Arnab did, and this would endanger the safety of passengers in the future. In light of such possibilities, for Vistara to not ban Kunal Kamra certainly is an indication of their lack of commitment towards passenger safety.