‘Your job is not to trouble us’: Angry passenger confronts Pragya Thakur for delaying SpiceJet flight

To this, the BJP MP replies there must be some reason for her to be travelling in this flight even when there is “no first class, my facilities”.

“First class is not your right,” the man hits back.

“You should have that moral compass that even if one person is getting troubled because of you, you should own up because you are the leader. You are not ashamed that you have held 50 people at ransom,” he added.

When Thakur objects to his language, he replies: “I am using absolutely correct language.”

“Isme first class nahin hai, meri suvidha nahin hai….”
“Aapka right nahin hai first class” “Mera right hai first class”
Pragya Thakur in conversation with a passenger after holding up the flight over seat allocation.pic.twitter.com/89ajV82OLe

— SamSays (@samjawed65) December 23, 2019

On Sunday, SpiceJet said its crew members asked Thakur to move to a non-emergency row seat as she was on a wheelchair but she refused, causing the flight to delay.

According to news agency PTI, the flight got delayed by approximately 45 minutes due to this matter.

A SpiceJet spokesperson said: “As the BJP MP had come with her own wheelchair and had not booked through the airline, the staff wasn’t aware of this fact that she was a wheelchair passenger.

“She was requested by the crew to shift to 2 A/B (non-emergency row) due to safety reasons but she refused. The duty manager and other staff also requested her to move to another seat.”

She asked for the safety instruction document wherein the exit door policy is mentioned and the same was shown to her to provide clarity, the spokesperson said.

“As the flight was getting delayed other passengers were becoming restless and requested Hon’ble Smt. Thakur to change her seat but she refused. Other passengers also requested the airline staff to offload Hon’ble Smt. Thakur as she refused to change her seat.

“Finally, Hon’ble Smt. Pragya Thakur agreed to change her seat from 1A to 2B and the flight departed. We regret for the inconvenience caused. However, safety of our passengers is paramount at SpiceJet,” the spokesperson added.

The SpiceJet clarification came on a day when Thakur complained that the private airline denied her the seat she had booked on the flight. Thakur, an accused in the Malegaon blasts case, had pre-booked seat 1A on SG2489 flight and had come to the Delhi airport in her own wheelchair on Saturday.

When reporters approached her outside the Bhopal airport Saturday night, she alleged the airline staff “did not behave properly with passengers”.

“They did not give me the booked seat. I asked them to show the rules. I called the director and lodged a complaint with him,” she said.

The airport director, Anil Vikram, confirmed he received a complaint from Thakur.

“I have got her complaint about seat allotment. We will look into it on Monday,” he told PTI.

with PTI inputs