India’s Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Madhavrao Scindia, on Monday ordered an inquiry into an incident in which IndiGo airline staff apparently refused to allow a differently-abled child to board a flight.
“There is zero tolerance towards such behaviour. No human being should have to go through this,” the federal minister wrote on Twitter, assuring that he would be personally monitoring the case and asserted that “appropriate action will be taken”.
Jyotiraditya M. Scindia Tweet On Indigo
© Photo : Twitter
IndiGo, however, claimed in a statement that the child “could not board the flight… as he was in a state of panic."
Manisha Gupta, a passenger who posted about the Sunday's incident on Facebook*, furnishing it with photos and videos, wrote that several passengers at the airport argued with the IndiGo ground employee and supported the child.
A video circulating on social media shows the child in a wheelchair.
Gupta stated that a group of medical professionals taking that flight also suggested the airline's staff let the airport doctor decide whether the child was fit enough to travel.
“There was a delegation of doctors who were taking the same flight ….They offered to provide full support to the child and his parents, if any health episode were to occur mid-air,” he wrote.
He also said that several passengers, including a man who identified himself as a government official, questioned the airline staff’s decision.
According to Gupta, many passengers took issue with the airline, explaining with the help of “news articles [and] Twitter posts about Supreme Court decisions that no airline was permitted to discriminate against passengers with disabilities."
However, the IndiGo staff kept shouting at everyone and said, “This child is… uncontrollable. He is in a state of panic.”
According to NDTV news, the family was put up in a hotel, and they flew the next morning to their destination.
A whole host of social media users have slammed IndiGo over its staff's behaviour and demanded strict censure from the Indian government.
*Facebook is banned in Russia over extremist activity.