Jyotiraditya Scindia Vs Shashi Tharoor: Senior Leaders Lock Horns Over Flight Delays And Mismanagement

Minister for Civil Aviation Jyotiraditya Scindia and Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Wednesday locked horns on micro-blogging site X, formerly Twitter, over flight delays and mismanagement by the authorities at airports across the country.

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor slammed the Narendra Modi government and airlines for not being prepared enough to tackle such adverse challenges. Through an article, Shashi Tharoor highlighted challenges faced by passengers after flights were delayed up to 12 hours and people were forced to sit on the tarmac near Indigo planes and eat their meals. Tharoor said it's a "sorry state of affairs of India's aviation sector."

Hitting back at Tharoor, Jyotiraditya Scinida called the Congressman an arm-chair critic, adding that sharing articles does not count as 'research' and that Congress lacks the depth to tackle such technical sectors.

"It is for someone who is lost in his esoteric world of thesaurus that data mining of selective press articles from the internet qualifies as "research". Here are some actual facts for arm-chair critic Shashi Tharoor and the Cong IT Cell that might help tackle their lack of depth in understanding of technical sectors like civil aviation," Scindia said.

Scindia also accepted that there were not enough arrangements to handle such a massive crowd which resulted in people being forced to sit and eat on the tarmac.

"The treatment meted out to the passengers in the instant case was unacceptable, and we have acted immediately in the form of a show cause notice to the concerned operators. Further, SOPs for better communication to passengers were also issued. Implementation is being monitored thrice daily," he said.

"Corrective action is underway as we speak. Rest assured that any laxity in this regard will be meted with zero tolerance," Scindia further added.

A day ago, the Aviation Minister announced a comprehensive six-point action plan aimed at mitigating disruptions caused by fog in both domestic and international commercial flight operations.

Scindia also announced to establish 'war rooms' at six major airports to promptly address passenger issues.