Reacting to Congress’s Jairam Ramesh’s claims, Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia stated the said announcement was a part of an ongoing awareness collaboration between the Ministry of Civil Aviation and the Election Commission.
Union Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia on Wednesday lashed out at senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh after the latter alleged a violation of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) by IndiGo Airlines claiming that the announcement on two of its flights traveling between Delhi and Aizawl segued into an appeal to passengers to vote in the upcoming Assembly election in Mizoram while also applauding Prime Minister Narendra Modi for “something routine”.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Ramesh said, “Last week, I took flights to Aizawl and back to Delhi on Indigo. Both ways there was an announcement by the cabin crew that hailed the Prime Minister ‘Shri Narendra Modiji’ for something routine and inconsequential.”
Reacting to Jairam Ramesh’s claims, Jyotiraditya Scindia stated that the said announcement was a part of an ongoing awareness collaboration between the Ministry of Civil Aviation and the Election Commission of India to encourage voter participation.
“For your kind information: this is part of an ongoing awareness collaboration between @MoCA_GoI & the ECI to encourage voter participation,” Scindia tweeted along with the letter of collaboration.
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Jairam Ramesh, in his tweet, claimed that there was no mention of the Election Commission of India in the announcement made by IndiGo crew on the flights, which, he said, was a clear violation of the Model Code of Conduct.
“One of these announcements immediately segued into a vote appeal asking passengers to vote during upcoming state elections. Note that there was no mention of the Election Commission in this announcement — a clear violation of the Model Code of Conduct,” Ramesh wrote.
“Never before has any Prime Minister gone to these lengths to stay in the public eye to shore up his own flailing image, especially in the run-up to crucial elections. Clearly, there is no limit to the man’s insecurities, the Civil Aviation Minister’s sycophancy and the spinelessness of the airline concerned,” he added.
“Small mercies that the flight I took today to Raipur of another airline did not stoop to the same level. Good to see that some corporates are still resisting pressure from the Modi govt and are following fair practices,” the Congress MP said.
Jairam Ramesh said Jyotiraditya Scindia “seemed to have wilfully given up on reading and comprehension since he switched sides”.
“Which part of my post should I repeat again?” he said.
IndiGo did not respond to the claims made by Congress leader till the time this article was being drafted. The Model Code of Conduct has been in place since the announcement of polls on October 9 in five states including Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Telangana and Mizoram.
