Full-service carrier Vistara has banned stand-up comedian/propagandist Kunal Kamra from availing its services till April 27 for “unacceptable behavior” onboard an IndiGo flight in January this year. Other airline carriers like Indigo, Air India and SpiceJet had already imposed bans on him and now the misery has piled on Kamra with Vistara also coming on board and extending the ban.
Sources: Vistara Airlines has also banned stand up comedian Kunal Kamra from flying till 27 April. Decision was made after investigation of internal committee of Indigo concluded.A flying ban was imposed on him on Jan 28 this year for heckling journalist Arnab Goswami on a flight pic.twitter.com/3UYn7Bjmwy
— ANI (@ANI) March 13, 2020
To jog the memories a bit, Kunal Kamra had uploaded a video of himself on his Twitter account in late January, 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 tweet, “I did this for my hero… I did it for Rohit”
I did this for my hero…
I did it for Rohit pic.twitter.com/aMSdiTanHo— Kunal Kamra (@kunalkamra88) January 28, 2020
When the video surfaced, it was evident that Kamra was out on a hit-job to provoke Arnab and evoke a response to stir the pot of controversy. Goswami, nonetheless, maintained his composure and remained glued to his laptop. Kamra and his severe verbal diarrhea was on full display in the video where he can be heard saying, “Here I’m asking coward Arnab Goswami a question about his journalism and he is doing exactly what I expected him to do.” Throughout the video, Kamra can be taunting Goswami by calling him ‘Nationalist’ as if being a staunch nationalist is a matter of shame.
Owing to the preposterous display of stunts by Kunal Kamra in the flight, Minister of State (Independent Charge) Hardeep Singh Puri had advised all airlines to ban the man as he posed a visible threat to humans.
Kamra was shown the door by prominent airlines, following the announcement by Indigo to suspend him from flying onboard their flights for a period of six months (reduced to three months), airlines like Air India and Spice Jet also followed suit, suspending him from flying onboard their respective flights until further notice. The National Carrier of India, Air India, had announced restrictions on Kamra through a tweet, following his disgusting behavior on the IndiGo flight.
#FlyAI: In view of the incident onboard @IndiGo6E, Air India wishes to inform that conduct of Person concerned is unacceptable.With a view to discourage such behavior onboard flts, Mr Kunal Kamra is suspended from flying on any Air India flt until further notice. @HardeepSPuri .
— Air India (@airindia) January 28, 2020
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. 2/2@MoCA_GoI @HardeepSPuri
— IndiGo (@IndiGo6E) January 28, 2020
SpiceJet has decided to suspend Mr. Kunal Kamra from flying with the airline till further notice. @MoCA_GoI @DGCAIndia @HardeepSPuri @IndiGo6E
— SpiceJet (@flyspicejet) January 29, 2020
Following the ban by various airlines, Kamra had thanked Vistara for letting him fly. He had tweeted, “My airport look all thanks to @airvistara following due process… #lovevistara“.
My airport look all thanks to @airvistara following due process…#lovevistara pic.twitter.com/HDoF8CZJvP
— Kunal Kamra (@kunalkamra88) February 2, 2020
Not only that, even film director Anurag Kashyap who is thick as thieves with Kamra, decided to stand in solidarity with him. Kashyap was due to fly to Kolkata and the organizers of the event he was supposed to attend had booked him on an Indigo flight. Being the elitist he is, Anurag Kashyap threw a fit of tantrum and forced the organizers to book him on a Vistara flight.
He then tweeted about the same and claimed that he had done so in solidarity with Kamra. He further added that he would not be flying Indigo till Kunal’s fly ban was lifted.
No @IndiGo6E .. on @airvistara .. in solidarity with @kunalkamra88 pic.twitter.com/HagCufQf34
— Anurag Kashyap (@anuragkashyap72) February 3, 2020
While Anurag Kashyap’s twitter bio clearly states that he is neither associated with the right or the left, his timeline is filled with vile Modi and BJP hatred. As such, for him to stand up for a deranged personality like Kunal Kamra was only imperative.
Now that Air Vistara has also banned Kamra, it needs to be seen whether Kashyap also stands in solidarity with his brother-in-cause and stops flying Vistara in addition to Indigo, Air India and SpiceJet.
