At a time when discussions and debates are on in the country about the significance of regional languages and the dominance of the English language, an incident from the southern part of the country has added fresh fuel to it.
A Twitter user recently shared a piece of news claiming that a Telugu-speaking woman passenger was forced to change her seat in a flight because she did not know English or Hindi. The post further added that the passenger who originally had an XL seat in the exit row was forced to change to seat 3C due to a ‘safety issue’ as cited by a flight attendee.
It was on an Indigo flight from Vijayawada to Hyderabad where the incident took place. Giving details about the incident, Twitter user Devasmita Chakraverty in her post added, “If unhappy, we (not she) should complain. No dignity, non-Hindi treated as second class citizens in their own state.” She also shared a picture from the flight showing the female passenger.
Check out her tweet:
Indigo 6E 7297. Vijayawada (AP) to Hyderabad (Telangana), Sept 16-2022. The woman in green originally sitting in 2A (XL seat, exit row) was forced to seat 3C because she understood only Telugu, not English/Hindi. The attendant said it’s a security issue. #discrimination @IndiGo6E pic.twitter.com/bHa8hQj5vz
— Devasmita Chakraverty, PhD, MPH (@DevasmitaTweets) September 17, 2022
In a series of tweets, Chakraverty went on to express her disappointment over the incident and called it “unacceptable and problematic” as she claimed that the flight staff’s behaviour amounted to discrimination toward non-Hindi speakers under the garb of security.
The user also pointed out the practice adopted by Emirates and other international airlines stating that they use both English as well as regional languages for instructions and communications, while Indian airlines fail to do so.
Mentioning Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia in her tweet, Chakraverty demanded a resolution in the matter further calling it a “matter of safety, dignity, and treating everyone equally.”
Meanwhile, the incident triggered a debate on social media. While a section of people went on to slam Indigo airlines for promoting discrimination toward non-English/Hindi speakers, some pointed out the importance of ‘exit rows’ stating that in case of emergencies, people seated in the row should be able to communicate to everyone for evacuation purposes.
Here are some of the reactions:
She is clearly making issue out of nothing. She would’ve been asked if she understands instructions, if she cannot she will have to change seat
Isn’t that how security should work? During emergency they cannot go in search of a translator to open the emergency exit
— Toofan 🌪 (@ToofanTweets) September 18, 2022
We don’t need pilots sir, just telugu speaking assistant staff or air hostesses are enough. And there are many such already. It’s just the company doesn’t want them to talk other than Hindi/English and those telugu speaking workers are being used in some other places randomly.
— P Vamsi Varun (@VamsiVarunP) September 20, 2022
Hindi and english are the official languages of India. Crew is bound to know these languages, and apart from this if they know a 3rd language, it’s an added advantage. Incase of emergency the crew is only supposed to give instructions in these 2 languages which is widely understood
— Nikhil K S (@Nikhil_K_S79) September 20, 2022
If the crew cannot communicate with majority inside the flight due to local language issue, isn’t that a major security issues in emergency. Why local language speaking crew is not being posted?
— Dr Prasanna Thirunavukkarasu மரு. பிரசன்னா (@drsansthoughts) September 17, 2022
Emergency door operation instructions were being delivered languages which the passenger didn’t speak. By changing seats, they ensured that every passenger in that line was aware of how to operate it. Hence security issue addressed.
— Tanuj Baru (@barucracy) September 18, 2022
It also invoked reactions from certain political leaders including Telangana IT Minister KT Rama Rao and Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra. While KTR requested the airlines to respect local languages and passengers, he also asked them to recruit more staff who can speak local languages.
Dear @IndiGo6E Management, I request you to start respecting local languages & passengers who may not be well conversant in English or Hindi
In regional routes, recruit more staff who can speak the local language like Telugu, Tamil, Kannada etc. This will be a win-win solution https://t.co/GbJGi5nl0W
— KTR (@KTRTRS) September 18, 2022
TMC leader Mahua Moitra tweeted in support of KTR adding that European flights have attendants who are native language speakers.
I agree @KTRTRS. Short haul European flights ex London all have attendants who are native language speakers.
— Mahua Moitra (@MahuaMoitra) September 18, 2022
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