Shashi Tharoor takes a jibe on Scindia over delay in flights; Here’s what he said

Congress leader Shashi Tharoor criticized Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia's response to his criticisms of recent widespread flight delays in India. Taking it to his X handle, Tharoor urged Scindia to apologize the passengers who faced inconvenience. 

The development has come after Jyotiraditya Scindia on Wednesday countered Tharoor’s criticism concerning the chaotic situation triggered at the Delhi airport following dense fog. 

In one of his tweets, Tharoor mentioned, “Chaos at airports is just one of the results of the Modi government’s chronic mismanagement. Indian Railways has also been struggling as the government reduces the number of sleeper and general coaches, and increases AC coaches, despite the poor economic situation in India.”

6/6 Of course, in the background of all of this is the sorry state of India’s aviation sector. Once a highly competitive industry with many different airlines and cheap fares, now 90% of the market is controlled by just two groups. Market concentration anywhere and everywhere…

— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) January 16, 2024

Tharoor then accused Scindia, the Civil Aviation Minister, of using language meant to obfuscate rather than address the real problem of flight delays. He specifically referred to Scindia's use of terms like "exogenous factors" and "technical snags."

He also pointed out that 80,000 passengers had their flights cancelled just on January 14 and 15, with many more experiencing delays. He argued that this wasn't an isolated incident, but a consistent issue that needed urgent attention.

Tharoor also questioned Scindia's assertion that flight delays had gone down in recent months. He argued that while the number of canceled flights might have decreased, the number of delayed flights remained unacceptably high. Tharoor in the post only reiterated his call for action, but once again urged Scindia to take concrete steps to address the root causes of flight delays, such as infrastructure limitations, air traffic control inefficiencies, and staffing shortages.