Air India’s business class is in news, neither for strikes in officers’ units nor for any news of a fair hike or retrenchment! This time Tata-owned Air India is in news for passengers’ bad behavior and crew irresponsibility.
On November 26, news came that a male passenger urinated on a 70-year-old woman. He completed his journey without any hassle and was not bothered by any of the carrier staff. The matter became known after a month when the media raised its voice.
Once this news came into public knowledge, then voiced and opinions are coming out of resentment toward Air India’s management. The people are showing their disappointment with the flight crew and this actually should happen. It is right.
My mind is just evoked with the question which needs to be answered, Why do Indians make such lousy with their co-travelers in every journey? Here I am not blaming on only air mode travel, I had seen many reports of day-to-day life incidents where people pee, slap, abuse, bad touch, etc there are co-travelers!
You are thinking why I am putting this Air India incident and analyses here, right?
To be honest, all I know is that this Air India flight incident is as common as potholes on Indian roads. Nobody cares at all! After this bad news about Air India came to the public it was displaced on the mainstream channels for the whole day, the culprit now arrested and then everyone forgot about it. https://www.aninews.in/news/national/general-news/air-india-urination-case-accused-shankar-mishra-travelled-in-auto-rickshaws-switched-off-phone-to-escape-arrest-says-delhi-police20230107175057/
But wait for a second can you imagine what would be the mental state of that old lady who faced such a shameful act during the journey? Such bitterness further ruined the joy of his traveling for uncountable flights!
I know most Indians are comfortable saying that this was just an incident. Many people have to face this kind of experience in travel. Though the occasional brat will be encountered overseas. Indians seem to have a special tendency to be inconsistent.
There is a common perception that Indian travelers have about Indian travelers, whether in India or outside the borders, that they are substandard. We cannot deny the tendency of Indian tourists to steal stuff from hotels. Similarly, the drink-and-drive culture is very common in India, where alcohol is offered at no cost – meaning Indians cannot escape free alcohol. That’s why when I saw this incident with Air India, it was not surprising even for me.
After some research and analysis of points from the past few incidents, I arrived at a general principle, this is why Indians are lousy!
Civic sense is not something that a person develops in just a day, it is something that every community should work towards. It develops from the shared spirit of the communities such as not leaking on the roads, not throwing garbage outside the houses on the roads, avoid smoking in public places and transport. It all grows out of shared empathy.
But in India commonly I can only find empathy towards caste! Here are multiple lines which finally put all the people in several units. If we talk about community, we cannot point it in India after some caste groups, organizations, etc. I find the line of B.R. Ambedkar closer to me “Caste has killed public spirit”. And without public spirit, we cannot find the day in nature outside the home.
We are in a society where thousands of people fought to get India free from outsiders, and loyalties of caste are the foremost pillar of our country.
But what made us so inhuman? Where has our sense of unity gone? Why do we lack public concern for others? Who gave the right to be cruel and rude to others?
We see those who serve us as servants, and we see servants as inferior human beings. Unfortunately, in India, we treat them badly every day.
There is no other way to create empathy and thus promote civic sense. Caste plays a big role here.
The only solution is we need to boycott every person from our society who smells unfit for “community India”. We need to be more concern about the people around us.
