Bhopal MP Pragya Singh Thakur has slammed SpiceJet over "ill treatment" by the airline's staff on a flight from Delhi to Bhopal. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader lodged a complaint with the Raja Bhoj Airport director against the private carrier after alighting from flight SG 2489 from Delhi.
Pragya Thakur alleged she was "ill treated" over an issue with the seat allocated to her on the flight. "I have received a complaint from her over seat allotment. We will look into it on Monday," said airport Director Anil Vikram.
In a statement, SpiceJet, however, said Pragya Thakur had refused to cooperate with the airline staff who requested her to change her seat. According to the airline, Pragya Thakur had booked a particular seat but had not informed the airline that she would be travelling along with a wheelchair. According to the airline, the seat booked by Pragya Thakur is not allocated to passengers on wheelchairs because of safety reasons.
The airline said, "SpiceJet had the privilege to have Honourable Smt. Pragya Thakur on board SpiceJet flight SG 2498 (Delhi-Bhopal) on December 21. She had pre-booked seat 1A and had come to the airport in her own wheelchair."
"The Delhi-Bhopal flight is operated by Bombardier Q400 aircraft (78 seater). On this aircraft, the first row is the emergency row seat and is not allocated to passengers on wheelchairs," it further added.
"As the Hon'ble Smt. Thakur had come with her own wheelchair and had not booked through the airline, the staff wasn't aware of this fact that she was a wheelchair passenger. She was requested by the crew to shift to 2 A/B (non-emergency row) due to safety reasons but she refused. The duty manager and other staff also requested her to move to another seat."
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Thakur also asked for safety instruction document in which the exit door policy is mentioned and the same was shown to her by the airline staff, the letter read.
SpiceJet also said that this caused a delay in the flight taking off which caused other passengers to be restless and the staff then requested Thakur to change her seat but she refused.
"Other passengers also requested the airline staff to offload Hon'ble Smt. Thakur as she refused to change her seat," the letter added. The letter further added that the minister finally agreed to change her seat from 1A to 2B and the flight departed.
"We regret for the inconvenience caused. However, safety of our passengers is paramount at SpiceJet," the airline said.
Meanwhile, the Congress slammed Pragya Singh Thakur over the matter. Law Minister in Kamal Nath cabinet PC Sharma, on Sunday, said "She is not a sadhvi at all. If she is a sadhvi then she should protest against her own government in the centre who is not giving share of Madhya Pradesh government for flood relief and crop insurance."
"She should protest for the on-going situation across the country on Citizenship Amendment Act. Protesting for a seat in flight is not a good thing to do for a member of parliament," added PC Sharma.