Shivraj Chouhan Condemns Air India Over Damaged Seat; Says Service Upgrades Under Tata A 'Misconception'

Union Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan slammed the services of the Tata Group-operated Air India over a "broken and sunken" seat while calling the services upgrade under the conglomerate a "misconception".

The Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare was travelling to Delhi on an Air India flight to inaugurate the Kisan Mela in Pusa, attend a Natural Farming Mission meeting in Kurukshetra, and engage with Kisan Sangathan representatives in Chandigarh.

However, the seat in the airline that was allotted to the union minister was broken. "It was uncomfortable to sit," Chouhan said in a post on the social media platform 'X', explaining how the Air India management is "cheating" the passengers.

"The management had been informed earlier that this seat was not good and its ticket should not be sold," the airline staff told Chouhan when confronted. "There are not just one such seat but many more."

Chouhan's co-passengers requested him to change seats and sit on a better seat, he explained in the post. "But why should I cause trouble to another friend, I decided that I would complete my journey by sitting on this seat only," he said.

"My impression was that Air India's service would have improved after Tata took over the management, but it turned out to be my misconception," the Union Minister said while flagging the unethical move by Air India. "I don't care about discomfort in sitting but it is unethical to make passengers sit on bad and uncomfortable seats after charging them the full amount. Isn't this cheating the passengers?"

Air India in a tweet, apologised and said that the matter is being looked into. "We apologize for the inconvenience caused. Please be rest assured that we are looking into this matter carefully to prevent any such occurrences in the future. We would appreciate the opportunity to speak with you."

Later, speaking to ANI, Chouhan said, "If there is something wrong going on, one of the paths to take is to not say anything. I felt that it is not about me. If other passengers also suffer inconvenience, their (Air India's) management should know this so that such situations don't arise in the future."

Chouhan added that if the company is being paid for services, it should be providing them properly.

Meanwhile, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, former Minister of State for the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, weighed in to say that if it was anyone else other than Chouhan, they would have created a "justified angry response" to this kind of incident.

The Tata Group's takeover of Air India has created a situation of reducing competition and consumer choice in full service airlines — which leads to "complacency and chalta hai!," Chandrasekhar said. "Suggest @TataCompanies address this warpspeed - else regulator and the government will need to start looking at consumer interest as a regulatory outcome in addition to safety."