Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan Slams Air India For Allotting Broken Seats

Union agriculture minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Saturday slammed for allotting a broken seat, questioning whether the airline was cheating passengers.

What Chouhan Said?

In a post on X, the former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister recounted his experience while travelling from Bhopal to Delhi on Air India flight AI436. He was assigned seat 8C, which he found to be broken and uncomfortable.

"When I asked the airline staff why the seat was allotted to me if it was bad, they told me that the management had been informed earlier that this seat was not good and its ticket should not be sold. There are not just one such seat but many more," he said.

Although fellow passengers offered to swap seats, Chouhan chose to remain in his assigned seat to avoid inconveniencing others. He stated that while his discomfort was secondary, selling defective seats to passengers despite full payment was unethical.

However, he said, "I don't care about sitting discomfort, but it is unethical to make passengers sit on bad and uncomfortable seats after charging them the full amount. Isn't this cheating the passengers?"

Chouhan expressed disappointment, stating that he had expected better service from Air India after its acquisition by the Tata Group but was let down.

Air India's Apology

He asked the airline, "Will the Air India management take steps to ensure that no passenger faces such inconvenience in future or will it continue to take advantage of the passengers' compulsion to reach their destination early?"

Air India responded to the Union minister's complaint on X, saying, "Dear Sir, we apologize for the inconvenience caused. Please be rest assured that we are looking into this matter carefully to prevent any such occurrences in the future. We would appreciate the opportunity to speak with you, kindly DM us a convenient time to connect."