An NDTV employee Shibangi Sinha Roy has taken to Twitter to lambast Air India, the government-owned flag carrier airline of India after she failed to produce required documents, resulting in her missing her flight.
The NDTV employee, also associated with far-left media portals like The Wire and The Caravan in the past, posted a thread of tweets on Tuesday, in which she held Air India accountable for her misplaced documents, bad internet and also for simply following the Airline rules.
The visibly irked Shibangi Sinha Roy asked Air India whether they “charge Rs 500 extra for the harassment?” She accuses the Air India staff of talking to her like she was “some wanted terrorist”. “Who allows you to talk to people like this?” asked the miffed NDTV employee.
Narrating her ‘harrowing experience’ she wrote that it all started when she lost a bag full of documents. She says that she had all the necessary documents on her phone, but due to bad internet, she could not access them.
When she asked the airline for help, an Air India staffed purportedly “yelled” at her. She expected the Air India staff to provide her with his personal mobile wifi, which the staff declined. Roy alleges that the staff replied to her by saying: “apke jaise bohot log aate hain” (so many like you come all day).
“After a kind co-passenger tethered me hotspot, I entered the airport. Upon entering, your staff made me wait for 15 more mins. And now, your staff Parveen Kaur and Jeetender tell me that boarding has closed. 1 HOUR BEFORE THE TAKE OFF”, Roy wrote tagging Air India.
Roy capitalizes letters to highlight that the Air India staff informed her “1 HOUR BEFORE TAKE OFF” that the boarding was closed”. She deplores the Air India staff Parveen Kaur and Jeetender for not letting her board her flight, that too when an entire one hour was left for boarding the flight.
Well, probably the NDTV employee, who thinks India is threatened by ‘homegrown Hindu terrorists’, is not aware of the airline rules. The check-in counter closure timing mentioned on Air India’s official website clearly specifies that the counter closing time both for domestic and international flights is 60 minutes before departure.
And this is precisely what Roy was informed about, making it sufficiently clear that the Air India staffs obviously had no personal grudges against her, but were just following protocols.
Dear Ms. Shibangi, apologies for the inconvenience caused. Kindly DM your contact details and email id for us to get in touch with you.
— Air India (@airindiain) February 9, 2021
Air India, however, reached out to the NDTV employee. They apologised for the inconvenience caused to her and asked for her personal details like e-mail id and phone number so that they could get in touch with her to address her grievances.