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Journalism of Courage
A day after he reportedly abused and manhandled three officials of the Jet Airways, including a woman, at the Mumbai airport, Union Labour Minister Sahib Singh Verma had the airline apologising to him and assuring him that that a probe was underway to take ‘‘corrective measures’’.
The Civil Aviation Ministry also ordered a probe into the incident. ‘‘Based on media reports and a verbal complaint by Sahib Singh Verma, I have ordered an inquiry into the episode and directed that a report be prepared within two days,’’ Civil Aviation Minister Shahnawaz Hussain said today.
The incident involving Verma occurred on Jet Airways flight 9W-406 on Tuesday when the flight could not take off on time due to poor runway visibility. Jet Airways Manager, Customer Relations, Meenal Naik said an enraged Verma grabbed her by the shoulder and pushed her into the galley while being abusive throughout.
Verma also picked on duty manager Zafar Mullah who intervened and told him ‘‘Don’t touch the lady.’’ Though all the officials had their name-tags on, the minister specifically asked Zafar his name and then shot back: ‘‘Dawood ke aadmi ho. Dawood ka airline hai kya. (You are Dawood’s man. Is this Dawood’s airline?)’’ Sources in Jet Airways said that Inder Verma, executive vice-president, today flew from Mumbai to New Delhi especially to pacify the minister. Executive vice-president (commercial division) Bram Stellar initiated an inquiry and spoke to the three officials who were allegedly manhandled. Late tonight, Jet Airways apologised to Verma for the ‘‘discourteous’’ behaviour of its staff and the inconvenience caused to him during his travel from Mumbai to Delhi.
The airline said it was expressing ‘‘apology for the discourteous behaviour.’’ It said that an inquiry had been instituted and appropriate, corrective and necessary disciplinary action would be taken against the officers found responsible for the lapse. Verma, speaking to The Indian Express had denied the allegations and said the airline had even apologised to him.
‘‘These allegations are totally false. In fact, the Jet Airways head Naresh Goyal called up more than once from London to apologise to me,’’ he had said. However, Verma’s tantrums are not new for Jet officials who have regularly seen incidents of this kind in the past.
Last year they had to specially charter an aircraft to and fro Bhuj from Mumbai after Verma arrived late in the Mumbai airport and missed his flight.
