Shubhendra Rao alleges Air India crew vandalised sitar, airline reacts

Airlines have been making news for the wrong reasons of late. Celebrities have been lashing out at the respective airline crew for various reasons, be it disallowing them to board flights or alleging damage of belongings. Shubhendra Rao lashed out at Air India after he found his sitar was damaged ahead of a performance in New York. The sitar player claimed that the airline staff ‘vandalised’ his musical instrument. He termed the alleged act as ‘ruthless’ and 'insensitive', while urging the airline crew be sensitised in terms of the handling of musical instruments. Air India replied to the complaint on Twitter after five days, clarifying that the ‘mishandling’ did not occur at Delhi airport, and that the investigation into the matter is underway at New York Airport. 

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On Friday, Shubhendra Rao took to his Facebook handle to shared pictures of the ‘damaged’ sitar and wrote, “There it happens again!!!! My Sitar has been vandalised once again, this time by our own #AirIndia!! Just arrived in New York to perform at the #VedicHeritageInc and this is how my Sitar has arrived. How can anyone be so ruthless and insensitive? For sure, this has been slit open because there is no way the sitar would break in this fashion. I know many people will come out in support and suggest many things but the simple truth is that airlines and their staff need to be sensitised towards how to handle music instruments.” (sic)

In a sarcastic tone, he added, “WHEN DOES THIS STOP??? How can any artist survive if airlines keep breaking their instruments whenever they travel? These days, no one asks me how I am after a journey. They always ask me how my instrument is!!” (sic)

Shubhendra Rao continued that he has been fighting for his cause for a while now, he wrote, “I had started a petition on www.change.org about 2yrs ago, fighting for the right of artists like me who continue to suffer at the hands of these stupid airlines. Even got a lot of support but eventually, nothing happened since the powers-to-be continue to remain insensitive towards arts and artists.” 

The sitarist even tagged Union Minister for Civil Aviation, Hardeep Singh Puri, Civil Aviation Secretary and CMD of Air India to take action and prevent such incidents. “Minister for Civil Aviation #HardeepSinghPuri, Civil Aviation Secretary #PradeepSinghKarola, CMD of Air India #AshwaniLohani. Please note that #injustice has happened on our own national carrier and someone needs to take responsibility for this callousness and something drastic needs to be done so that we artists do not continue to suffer, be it at the hands of #AirIndia or any other airlines,” read the post. 

Here's the post:

After the lack of a response from the airline, Shubhendra Rao on Monday then tweeted. “Latest news from @airindiain. http://NOTHING.Press covered this tragedy extensively& Civil Aviation Minister,@HardeepSPuriAir India's Managing Director @AshwaniLohani& @MoCA_GoIis tagged in every post, no decency to contact me even after 72hrs of my first post?” 

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AI’s response 

On Tuesday, Air India finally responded to the post, and sharing an image of the timeline of events of the movement of his luggage, wrote that the matter is being investigated in America. He added that no untoward incident was spotted on the CCTV cameras. "#FlyAI : Recently we have been informed about mishandling of Musical Instrument (Sitar) of @ShubhendraRao. There is no mishandling of the instrument at Delhi Airport. The matter is being further investigated at Newyork Airport. Relevant part of Investigation report is attached," read the post.

On Sunday, Sonakshi Sinha had similarly lashed out at Indigo Airlines after she found her bag damaged. She had even posted a video on Twitter. Chris Gayle fuming at Emirates for being denied boarding a flight and asked to travel in economy class had also made headlines. 

READ: Chris Gayle Fumes At Airline After Being Told Of 'overbooked' Flight

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