F-word hijacks Air India meet

Pilots allegedly called Air India CMD Arvind Jadhav a f*****, tried to grab his neck at Monday meet in New Delhi, ensuring standoff continues

Pilots allegedly called Air India CMD Arvind Jadhav a f''''', tried to grab his neck at Monday meet in New Delhi, ensuring standoff continues

On Monday afternoon, a group of Air India pilots, led by Captain V K Bhalla and Captain Anuj Basu, met the company's CMD, Arvind Jadhav, to break the deadlock on the agitation, which began on Saturday.

But the meeting was disrupted as pilots hurled abuses at Jadhav.

A member of the Indian Commercial Pilots Association said that two hours into the meeting, Captains Bhalla and Basu started abusing Jadhav repeatedly saying he was a f'''''.
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That's when an angry Jadhav stormed out of the room. A few pilots followed him and after 45 minutes, managed to convince him to come back and resume the meeting.
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"Everything went haywire after Captain Bhalla and his colleagues used abusive language against Jadhav," said the pilot.

Yeh Flight Kab Udhegi? Tired of Air India's unclear answers on rescheduled flights, this boy decided it was time for a break at the international terminal yesterday. Several other passengers were also stranded at the airport due to the strike.

Grabbing the neck

But soon, one hour into the resumed talks, the meeting ended for good after the pilots called Jadhav a dictator.
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"Some of the pilots even tried to grab Jadhav by the neck," said the pilot. Captain Bhalla admitted that the meeting was acrimonious.
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"Yes, tempers flew, but we are ready to call off the strike if we get an official statement from the CMD," he added.

However, the Air India official spokesperson said, "I am not aware of any such incident taking place at the meeting. But if something like that did happen, it's very disappointing."

The Dispute

The ongoing Air India agitation is about a cut u00a0in pilot salaries.

It u00a0started after several executive pilots stared going on sick leave on Saturday after the management said that there would be an up to 50 per cent cut in their productivity-linked incentives.

180
The number of executive pilots who have been on sick leave since Saturday. Air India employs 300 executive pilots and over 1,200 pilots over all