IndiGo is once again in the spotlight, and not for good reasons. The airline has finally responded to the ‘casteism’ allegations, calling them baseless. A 35-year-old trainee pilot had recently accused three senior officials at the airline of making casteist remarks, like telling him that he was unfit to fly and should be stitching shoes instead.
The trainee, who belongs to a Scheduled Caste, had filed an FIR, post which a case was registered against the officials, namely – Tapas Dey, Manish Sahni, and Captain Rahul Patil.
The IndiGo spokesperson said, “IndiGo upholds a zero-tolerance policy towards any form of discrimination, harassment, or bias and remains firmly committed to being an inclusive and respectful workplace.”
The statement further called the allegations baseless and claimed that it “stands by its values of fairness, integrity, and accountability”. The airline said that it will “support the law enforcement agencies as required.”
In his complaint, the trainee had mentioned a meeting that took place on April 28 at IndiGo’s Gurugram office. He claimed that during the 30-minute meeting, he was told, “You are not fit to fly an aircraft, go back and stitch slippers. You are not even worthy of being a watchman here.”
According to him, this harassment was done to pressure him into resigning. He believes the offensive remarks were intended to insult him because he belongs to Scheduled Caste.
He also said he faced unfair treatment at work, including salary cuts without reason, being made to go through unnecessary retraining, and receiving warning letters that weren’t justified. He added that he had reported all this to senior officials and even reached out to IndiGo’s ethics committee, but no action was taken. Left with no choice, he eventually decided to file a police complaint.