New Delhi: On 14 June, a former IndiGo employee Mohammad Jamshid walked into his workplace, Kempegowda International Airport, Bengaluru, to curious glances, whispered conversations and palpable awkwardness. Everyone knew about his confrontation with the higher-ups. He was allegedly asked to touch his supervisor’s feet for not wearing a tie. Unable to endure the humiliation, Jamshid resigned the same day.
“It made me feel very bad. I felt ashamed after I learnt that everyone in the office knew about the incident. The HR tried to convince me but I said I have already decided. I had a good value in the company and now, I felt humiliated,” 24-year-old Jamshid told ThePrint.
A video that Jamshid posted on 15 July, in which he recounts the incident, has gone viral on Instagram. The video has garnered 2.3 million views and over 10,000 comments. In the video, Jamshid says that before resigning he had sent an email to the compliance and ethics department which replied that they didn’t find anything of note in the CCTV footage.
“You see, in Terminal 1 area, you have over three thousand CCTVs and they found nothing. I don’t know what to say. He is a director and I am just an executive staff. I think justice was not served,” Jamshid said.
The video has sparked an outpouring of support. It has also prompted former IndiGo employees to come forward with their own experiences.
One such commenter declared that leaving the airline was the best decision of her life. “My international flights were blocked because I was a few kgs overweight, not for weeks or months but YEARS. When I complained repeatedly, my manager said ‘2-3 kgs toh kam ho nahi rahe aur international flights karni hai’ (you can’t reduce 2-3 kgs of weight and you want to do international flights),” said Deepanshi Sharma.
Another former IndiGo employee came out in support of Jamshid, but added that despite working with the airline in Delhi and Thiruvananthapuram, he had never witnessed anything like this. “I am also an ex Indigo staff … .but I never faced anything like this. Maybe, I worked under some good leaders. I feel sorry for you bro…,” read the comment.
In a statement on 16 July, IndiGo rejected the allegations as baseless and unsubstantiated. It said that no evidence was found to support Jamshid’s claims.
“Throughout the tenure, the employee in question had a documented record of recurring professional misconduct and performance-related concerns, including unauthorized absences, which were addressed through counselling and other managerial interventions,” the airline said about Jamshid.
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Dreams of flying
Soon after the incident on 4 June, Jamshid left for a vacation. When he returned on 14 June, he was ready to let the matter slide. But the knowledge that his colleagues were aware of what had happened kept it from fading away.
Jamshid said his work was primarily on the airside of operations—the restricted zone where aircraft and runways are located. A tie, he says, was not part of their uniform. But on 4 June, when he had to step into the landside for an inspection—the public-facing section before security checkpoints—he realised he had forgotten to wear his tie.
“My supervisor was called and I was asked to apologize and I did. But then I was asked to touch her feet,” said Jamshid. “I felt I had to protect my dignity because nobody else will. For me, self-respect is very important.”
Jamshid, who has a sizable Instagram following of 94,000, had always dreamed of becoming a pilot, but the cost of training was beyond his means. So, he entered the aviation industry instead, hoping to save enough money to return to his original dream of flying. On his Instagram profile, he posts about solo trips and food.
Despite quitting his job, he said his dream of becoming a pilot still lives on.
“I will not let go of my dream and I will start working somewhere else very soon.”
(Edited by Theres Sudeep)