A-I welcome: You bloody Indians

Rahman went to the counter to ask if he could get a boarding pass, but the official — a Sudanese — allegedly flared up. ‘‘He shouted ‘go away or I’ll kick you out’,’’ Rahman alleged. ‘‘I asked him if this was the way to talk.’’ On this, the official pulled him by the collar and dragged him to airport security. The security officer pacified the duo and Rahman got back to his queue.

‘‘He (the Sudanese) then saw my luggage and started kicking it,’’ alleged Rahman. ‘‘I questioned him only to hear him yell, ‘You bloody Indians!’ Then he began swearing in Arabic and was about to hit me.’’ Another Arab employee intervened and pacified him.

Rahman said he wanted to lodge a complaint, but other A-I staff told him not to complain. The A-I duty supervisor, however, told him to file a complaint. Though airline staff were not wearing name badges, Rahman said the Sudanese told him to ‘‘go ahead and complain. My name is Adam’’.

Other passengers gave their telephone numbers and promised testimony, said Rahman. ‘‘If they don’t initiate action soon, I’ll take the matter to court,’’ he said.

When The Indian Express spoke to some passengers who were witness to the abuse, they agreed with Rahman. ‘‘We saw this Sudanese push and shove him. It hurt to see them treat us like this,’’ said Allwyn D’Souza from Bangalore.

Another passenger, Rahul Bajaj from Delhi, said: ‘‘I felt insulted. They also made me run from one counter to another.’’

Though the incident occurred in full view of other passengers, the complaint was filed in Mumbai only recently. When contacted, Air-India’s new chairman V. Thulasidas said he hadn’t come across the complaint but would inquire into it. ‘‘I will do all that can be done,’’ he said.