Tags:
Journalism of Courage
How Sahib Singh Verma blew his hat:
7 am: Indian team scheduled to arrive at Sahar from South Africa. On board the Air India flight are MP Jyotiraditya Scindia, Labour Minister Sahib Singh Verma, Sports Minister Vikram Verma and their families. But flight is late.
9 am: It lands. The team and celebrities, including Sharad Pawar, Uddhav Thackeray, Ritesh Deshmukh, Sunil Gavaskar emerge from the airport. Verma reaches Santa Cruz and misses his 9 am Indian Airlines flight to Delhi and decides to fly Jet Airways.
10.25 am: Delhi-based cricketers Harbhajan Singh, Ashish Nehra, Virender Sehwag, VJ Nikhil Chinappa, Viva’s Mahua Kamat are on the same flight.
10.40 am: All passengers of Jet Flight 9W 406 board plane.
11 am: The aircraft taxies on the runway but postpones take-off due to poor visibility.
11.05 am: Airlines announces the flight could be delayed by 20 minutes.
1.15 pm: The airline asks passengers to deplane and offers lunch at the terminal. A furious Verma demands lunch be served inside the plane.
1.20 pm: Duty manager Mohan Menon summoned to persuade the minister. Verma punches Menon. Twice.
1.25 pm: Duty manager Zafar Mullah tries to intervene. Verma pushes and abuses him.
1.30 pm: Customer relations manager Minal Naik tries to calm Verma down. He grabs her shoulders and pushes her. Mullah tries to intervene. Verma asks, ‘‘Dawood ke aadmi ho? Dawood ka airline hai kya? The reference is to past allegations that Jet Airways was funded by Dawood.
2.40 pm: Vermas leave, dive to terminal and book tickets on 5 pm IA flight to Delhi.
2.50 pm: Jet takes off. Others on board keep their hat on.
Nikhil Chinappa, VJ: ‘‘I don’t know who the politician was but there was a man trying to throw his weight around. There were lots of other flights grounded at the time. The airline staff was as accommodating as possible. If there was anybody out of line, it was this man. It seemed he was always used to having his way. I hate politicians. So, I didn’t bother to check who it was.’’
Ashok Wadhwa, chairman, Ambit Finance: ‘‘I did not witness the fracas. I came to know about it from other passengers. Later, I took the same flight back to Delhi. Till date, I have never had a problem with Jet Airways staffers.’’
Mahua Kamat, Viva singer: ‘‘I didn’t know who is Sahib Singh Verma or what he looked like till I read about the incident in newspapers. I told myself, ‘Oh! I was on the same flight’.’’
