Union civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia locked horns with Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Wednesday over the issue of flight delays. Rebutting Taroor’s charges, the Union minister called the MP from Thiruvananthapuram an ‘arm-chair critic in the esoteric world of thesaurus”
Earlier, Tharoor in a series of social media posts on X shared news reports of flight delays and mishaps at different airports across the country. The issue of flight delay was flagged by Bollywood actors and several other social media users, sparking a debate on the social media.
Shashi Tharoor questioned the preparedness by government and airlines to land the planes during inclement weather conditions.
“Thousands of peoples’ lives and schedules have been disrupted by a regular, predictable, foggy winter day. It’s a ModiGovt-made disaster, a result of the Ministry of Civil Aviation’s neglect and incompetence,” Tharoor said.
Denying the charges, Scindia: “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.”
He also said that the case of passengers eating on the tarmac was “unacceptable”.
“Further, SOPs for better communication to passengers were also issued. Implementation is being monitored thrice daily,” he said.
Scindia said that corrective measures were underway and assured “that any laxity in this regard will be meted with zero tolerance.
