Indian Airlines Ban Indian Politician After He Assaults Flight Steward

An unapologetic Indian politician representing a Hindu nationalist party has been banned from most commercial Indian carriers after unrepentantly admitting that he used a slipper to attack a 60-year-old flight steward around 25 times.

In the aftermath of the incident, Ravindra Gaikwad, an member of Parliament in India’s lower house from the Shiv Sena party, even defiantly “dare[d] the Delhi police to arrest” him, claiming that the flight attendant insulted him on the Pune to New Delhi flight. He added that the Indian state airline owed him an apology, local network NDTV reported.

Although he has not been arrested, so far, five airlines — Air India, IndiGo, Jet Airways, SpiceJet and Go Air (the latter four being part of the Federation of Indian Airlines) have banned him from flying.

[The steward] said ‘I will complain to [Indian prime minister Narendra] Modi’, so I hit him…Should I have to listen to this abuse? ... What did he say, that I hit him with my hand? I hit him 25 times with a slipper,” Gaikwad told ANI news agency.

The issue cropped up because according to Gaikwad, he had an open business class ticket but was given an economy seat, the Times of India reported.

The Air India staff member, Sukumar, who was assaulted, said Friday, "They are public servants, elected by public. They need to behave in a decent manner. I had requested him to deboard the aircraft as the cleaning staff had to do their work. I am not scared at all. I have been dealing with the public. Many people get irritated by such issues…. He misbehaved with me, he even broke my glasses. I never expected this could happen ... God save our country if this is the culture and behavior of our MPs.”

Politicians from other parties condemned Gaikwad’s actions. Speaker of the lower house of Indian Parliament, Sumitra Mahajan, said that "no MP is allowed to misbehave with anyone."

The incident also has drawn the public's ire on social media.