Three airlines have banned popular stand-up comedian, Kunal Kamra who was seen heckling Republic TV Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami inside an airplane demanding a reply from the journalist.
Kamra on January 28th, 2020 made a series of Tweets about the encounter where he first wrote how he met the TV anchor and “gave a monologue about his journalism”.
Later he posted a video on his social media handles confronting Goswami aboard the plane. In the 1.51 minute video, he is heard demanding a reply from Goswami, if he is a “coward or a journalist or a nationalist” to which Goswami with earplugs on is busy watching something on his laptop.
“Here I am asking coward Arnab Goswami questions about his journalism and he is doing exactly what I expected him to do….. He is not ready to answer my questions…. Viewers want to know if Arnab is a coward or a nationalist. Arnab, this is for national interest. I am part of the tukde-tukde narrative. You should deflate me. You should take the enemies of the state down. You should make sure that the country is in safe hands of Narendra Modi. You should fight against dynast” Kamra was heard as saying.
The comedian further explained what happened at the IndiGo flight and said that he had apologised to all crew members, pilots, but expressed no regrets for what he said to Goswami.
The video has gone viral on the internet with more than 2.8 million views and 34k retweets till the filing of this news and let to a fiery debate among the netizens.
Meanwhile, IndiGo Airlines took to their Twitter informing that Kunal Kamra has been suspended for a period of six months, “as his conduct onboard was unacceptable behaviour.”
To this Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri retweeted and wrote, “Offensive behaviour designed to provoke & create disturbance inside an aircraft is absolutely unacceptable & endangers safety of air travellers. We are left with no option but to advise other airlines to impose similar restrictions on the person concerned.”
The comedian also had a sarcastic reply to the airline, “Thank you Indigo a six-month suspension is honestly very kind of you… Modiji might be suspending Air India forever.”
Following Indigo Airlines update, Air India, Spice Jet too banned Kunal Kamra from flying with them until further notice.
Photo Credit: @KunalKamra
