Smriti Irani gets heckled on IndiGo flight over inflation issue

All India Mahila Congress acting president Netta D'Souza on Sunday fired questions on price rise at Union Minister Smriti Irani when the two came face-to-face on IndiGo's Delhi-Guwahati flight, with the minister objecting to being "accosted".

New Delhi: All India Mahila Congress acting president Netta D'Souza on Sunday fired questions on price rise at Union Minister Smriti Irani when the two came face-to-face on IndiGo's Delhi-Guwahati flight, with the minister objecting to being "accosted". IndiGo said the incident is currently under investigation. D'Souza on Sunday posted a short video of the incident on Twitter where she asks Women and Child Development Minister Irani about the rising prices of cooking gas and petrol. The minister - who was sitting in the first row of the plane - is heard asking D'Souza to not block the way so that people behind her can de-board.

Irani, while walking on the aerobridge towards the terminal, is heard telling the Congress leader that 80 crore people in India are getting free food grains for the last 27 months. It will be lovely if I am not accosted, she says, to which D'Souza says "no one is being accosted". The Congress leader then tells Irani that she is a minister to which the latter replies, ''I am answering ma'am'', and goes on to speak about free COVID-19 vaccination. Some parts of the conversation in the video are not audible.

IndiGo spokesperson told the media, We are aware of the matter on flight 6E262 DEL-GAU on 10 April 2022 and it is currently under investigation. We would like to confirm no IndiGo employees were involved in this matter. The airline had banned comedian Kunal Kamra for six months after he had heckled Arnab Goswami, the editor of Republic TV, on IndiGo's Mumbai-Lucknow flight on January 28, 2020.

PTI