Rahul Gandhi, the former President of the Indian National Congress (INC,) on the 29th of January, criticised the move of four airlines to ban Kunal Kamra from travelling with them.
On the 28th of January, comedian Kunal Kamra recorded a video, mimicking and provoking Republic TV journalist Arnab Goswami after the latter refused to talk to Mr. Kamra about a few issues. After the video went viral on several social media platforms, IndiGo banned Kunal Kamra, stating his act was offensive.
While a few netizens supported Mr. Kamra for his bravery to ask Arnab Goswami his views about a few topics, especially the incident at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU,) others criticised him.
One such supporter of Kunal Kamra was Rahul Gandhi, a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) opposition party.
Mr. Gandhi took to his official Twitter handle and said, “The ban imposed on #kunalkamra by 4 airlines is the act of a coward leveraging his influence with the Govt to silence a critic. Those who use their “news” cameras as 24×7 tools of propaganda, should show some spine when the camera is turned on them.”
According to the rules, the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) needs to refer the matter to an internal committee, which needs to be formed within 30 days of the incident. After the formation of the committee, they would investigate the matter and if any of the parties is not satisfied, one can appeal against the decision of the committee to the body of the Civil Aviation Ministry or a Court.
With regard to this, the DGCA released a statement which read, “The matter is to be referred to the “internal committee” that will give a final decision within 30 days, which will be “binding on the airline concerned.””
According to the rules, out of the three categories of offences, Kunal Kamra’s offence comes under the second category, which is ‘physically abusive behaviour.’
However, according to the description of the Civil Aviation Minister, the behaviour of Kunal Kamra is closer to the first category of offence, the maximum duration of ban for which can only be three months.
Besides IndiGo, Air India, SpiceJet and GoAir also banned Kunal Kamra from travelling with them for a duration of 6 months.
