Junk your arrogance, apologise to people, Tharoor tells Scindia

"My dear @JM Scindia, it's a pity that since switching sides (to the BJP) you have adopted the Modi government's uncaring attitude to the public,” the Congress MP said in a string of posts on X.

Delhi flight chaos

Tharoor fired a fresh salvo at Scindia over the chaos the Delhi airport in particular witnessed on account of fog-induced flight delays which saw flights cancellations that affected about 80,000 passengers on January 14 and 15 alone. Also, lakhs more suffered through incessant delays.

Tharoor, who engaged in a war of words on X on Wednesday over the flight delays, issued six posts in a point-by-point rebuttal of Scindia's arguments.

He blamed the civil aviation ministry for “myriad incompetencies, absolute lack of preparation, and the glaring loopholes in functioning".

Tharoor’s thesaurus

Scindia claimed on Wednesday that Tharoor is "lost in his esoteric world of thesaurus", and for him "data mining of selective press articles from the internet qualifies as ‘research’".

Responding to the posts by Scindia, Tharoor on Thursday said: "I don't need an 'esoteric thesaurus' to respond to scindia's selective rebuttal of my thread yesterday…

It would be prudent for the minister to apologise to them for the agony and distress that his government has caused, enabled and overseen rather than engage in "nugatory name-calling", Tharoor said.

Apologise, Scindia told

"Mantri-ji, ahankaar chhodo, janata se maafi maango! (Minister, put aside your arrogance and apologise to the people)," the Congress leader said.

Runway maintenance work is indeed critical for safety, however, maintenance for the one other CAT-III B runway at Delhi Airport only began in September 2023, Tharoor argued.

"Why wasn't maintenance started earlier, so it could be completed before the beginning of winter? The winter fog and 'pollution incidents' in Delhi are sadly an annual event that could and should have been planned for -- which is exactly what your ministry failed to do," he said.

Trained pilots

"On December 29, 50 flights were diverted … because of a shortage of CAT-III trained pilots. That's 86 per cent of Delhi-bound flights! "

Tharoor said that under the BJP government, thousands of crores of rupees have been wasted on the failed UDAN scheme.

“After seven years, out of 493 subsidised routes, only 225 (about 47 per cent) are still surviving. This is not even considering the 403 other routes that were awarded but could not even begin operations.”

Airport numbers

The MP said the claims about doubling the number of airports was one of the government’s most-repeated concoctions.

"In 2014, the Airports Authority of India annual report shows that there were already 125 airports in India. In 10 years, you have been able to add just 20 airports. In comparison, from 2004 to 2014, the UPA added 35 operational airports," he argued.

"My dear @JM_Scindia, it's a pity that since switching sides you have adopted the Modi Government's uncaring attitude to the public.”

Passenger agony

Tharoor said: "I am not denying that there has been some growth. Nor am I blaming the government for the weather. I am pointing out that there are a number of evident shortcomings in the government's planning; its failure to take pro-active action on problems that could easily have been anticipated.

"The minister would be better served by shifting his focus from my arm-chair and my diligent researchers to the agony of the passengers.”

Scindia was in the Congress for a long time but quit the party and joined the BJP in 2020.