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Jairam Ramesh of Congress accuses IndiGo of violating poll code: ‘Last week…’
Jairam Ramesh claimed that there was no mention of the Election Commission of India in the announcement made by the crew on IndiGo flights.
Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Wednesday alleged the violation of the Model Code of Conduct by IndiGo Airlines claiming that the announcement on two of its flights between Delhi and Aizawl segued into an appeal to passengers to vote in the upcoming assembly election in Mizoram while hailing Prime Minister Narendra Modi for "something routine".
In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Ramesh said, "Last week, I took flights to Aizawl and back to Delhi on Indigo. Both ways there was an announcement by the cabin crew that hailed the Prime Minister 'Shri Narendra Modiji' for something routine and inconsequential".
The Congress leader also claimed that there was no mention of the Election Commission of India (ECI) in the announcement made by the crew in the aircraft, which, he said, was a "clear violation of the model code of conduct".
"One of these announcements immediately segued into a vote appeal asking passengers to vote during upcoming state elections. Note that there was no mention of Election Commission in this announcement — a clear violation of the Model Code of Conduct," Ramesh wrote.
"Never before has any Prime Minister gone to these lengths to stay in the public eye to shore up his own flailing image, especially in the run-up to crucial elections. Clearly, there is no limit to the man's insecurities, the Civil Aviation Minister's sycophancy and the spinelessness of the airline concerned," he added.
"Small mercies that the flight I took today to Raipur of another airline did not stoop to the same level. Good to see that some corporates are still resisting pressure from the Modi govt and are following fair practices," the Congress MP said.
Earlier in the day, Ramesh took a dig at the BJP ahead of the assembly election in Chhattisgarh saying that the saffron party was banking on the polarisation of votes alleging it does not have any real issue but people won't accept its divisive ideology.
"The BJP is without any issues in Chhattisgarh. It does not have any issues to raise except (those which can create) polarisation. The speeches made in the state by the home minister and Assam chief minister only had polarisation (as their objective)," he said at a press conference in Raipur.
Legislative assembly elections are slated to take place in five states – Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Telangana and Mizoram this month while the counting of votes will be done on December 3. The Model Code of Conduct has been in place since the announcement of polls on October 9.
