Indian Railways Mulling To Ban Unruly Passengers On The Lines Of Airlines After Kunal Kamra Incident

Taking the idea of banning passengers for their unruly behaviour onboard a flight from the airlines, the Indian Railways is also mulling to ban such passengers who pose a threat to fellow travellers, railway ministry officials said on Tuesday (28 January).

A senior railway ministry official in the know of the development told news agency IANS, "Looking at the growing trend of passengers going unruly during flight and risking the lives of other passengers, the railways is also mulling to ban such passengers for a few months."

This idea of taking strict action against unruly passengers came about after India’s popular low cost airline in a series of tweets on Tuesday evening announced that it had suspended controversial ‘comedian’ Kunal Kamra from flying the airline for a period of six months after he harassed senior journalist Arnab Goswami on board a Mumbai to Lucknow flight.

After the Kunal Kamra incident it is quite likely passengers, who have been banned from traveling with various airlines will also be on the no travel list of Indian Railways. The Railways will take the list from the airlines and then put it on their system which will ensure such individuals cannot book tickets for a period of time.

However, some social media users who condemned Kamra’s behaviour are calling his six month travel ban by Indigo airlines, harsh and some have even justified his behaviour.

Journalist Nidhi Razdan called the action “a bit excessive” in a tweet after Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep tweeted, that “Offensive behaviour designed to provoke & create disturbance inside an aircraft is absolutely unacceptable & endangers safety of air travellers.”

Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, in a tweet justified the behavior of Kamra and in a classic case of false equivalence said, “Arnab got a taste of his own medicine.”