Girl thanks civil aviation minister for swapping seats with her and her ill mom

Civil Aviation minister Jayant Sinha and his wife offered their seats to Shreya and her mother, who needed the extra leg space.

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That’s a sweet gesture for sure! (Source: ShreyaPradip/Twitter)

Twitter seems to give an interesting insight into the way several of India’s Union Cabinet ministers work. Be it the many visas that external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj has granted (uniting lovers to helping family members out of a tight fix) to railways minister Suresh Prabhu, who has revolutionised the access to comfort and essentials during train travel (remember the time a guy tweeted out the need for a wheelchair and had one waiting when he disembarked?).

Well, this is not be a story of a tweet reaching out to a minister, but one that will definitely put a smile on your face. According to a tweet by @ShreyaPradip, Shreya was travelling on an Indigo flight with her ill mom. The young girl, whose Twitter profile indicates that she’s from Ranchi, and her mother were given the XL seats with more leg room because her mother could not walk. At a mid-flight halt at Kolkata, it turned out the seats belonged to Union Civil Aviation Minister Jayant Sinha and his wife. Sinha insisted they continue to sit there and the couple took another seat instead.

A grateful Shreya later tweeted: “@jayantsinha @IndiGo6E Ache din is wen Aviation Minister gives his 1st class seat 2 me n my ill mother, sits in d eco class himself Thnx Sir”.

The minister was quick to respond with a tweet: “You are very welcome!” he said.

You are very welcome! https://t.co/fLlQp4Lzmn

— Jayant Sinha (@jayantsinha) November 6, 2016

Though, since the aircraft does not have a first class, Shreya later corrected that she meant the XL seats with more leg space, next to the door.

There was a tweet from Indigo airline’s Twitter handle as well, enquiring whether Shreya had a comfortable flight, to which she responded: “After such a generous gesture! Definitely ?? Thnxx”.

When indianexpress.com reached out to Shreya for more details on the incident, she said: “I was in flight from bengaluru to Ranchi which had a halt at Kolkata. My mother is ill and can’t walk so they gave us the seats near door cz it was vacant. At Kolkata the seats were booked and it belonged to Mr. Jayant Sinha and his wife. When they arrived they saw us and insisted on sitting on the same place and they took other seat”.

In the meanwhile, the reactions to Sinha’s kind gesture has been largely positive. One user tweeted: “aviation ministry is in good hands. More power to you Sir. Respect.” While another said, “thats great Kudos to minister @jayantsinha way to go Sir”.