‘Bit confused…’: Mahua Moitra recalls ban on Kunal Kamra amid ‘urinating’ incident in Air India flight

Mahua Moitra was referring to the incident when Kunal Kamra had questioned journalist Arnab Goswami's work ethics and journalism and called him a “coward” abroad on an IndiGo flight for which the comedian had faced a ban from multiple airlines.

After Air India airlines decided to ban a man, accused of peeing on his co-passenger on its flight, for a period of 30 days, Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra questioned the regulatory body of civil aviation about the decision, evoking the past incident of comedian Kunal Kamra facing a ban from multiple airlines for up to six months for allegedly “heckling” journalist Arnab Goswami.

Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra.(HT file)

“Bit confused as to how @DGCAIndia (Directorate General of Civil Aviation) works- @kunalkamra88 got a 6-month ban for questioning a co-passenger but another man who peed on an AI co-flyer gets a 30-day ban. Kunal… maybe change tack next time? Clearly more is less,” she tweeted Wednesday evening.

Moitra was referring to the incident when Kamra had questioned Arnab Goswami's work ethics and journalism and called him a “coward” abroad on an IndiGo flight. In a tweet separately, Kamra had also called Goswami “mentally unstable”. After a video of the incident had gone viral on social media, Kamra was barred from flying “till further notice” by multiple airlines including then state-run Air India.

Kamra also took a potshot Wednesday, sharing a screenshot of the airlines’ tweet from 2020 banning him, next to another screenshot of the news about putting the accused man in the 'urinating' incident on a no-fly list for 30 days. “2 Air Indias,” Kamra’s tweet read.

The incident in the spotlight happened on November 26 when a “drunk” man allegedly peed on a female co-passenger in the business class of a New York- Delhi flight. The airline said a police complaint has been lodged and, as a first step, it has banned the passenger in question for 30 days. It has also set up an internal committee to probe lapses on part of the airline's crew.