YSRCP blames Ram Mohan Naidu for IndiGo chaos

YSRCP leader and former MP Margani Bharat on Monday said Union Civil Aviation Minister Kinjarapu Ram Mohan Naidu’s incompetence alone is responsible for the ongoing aviation crisis.

He told the media here that without any proper departmental review, the Centre abruptly implemented new Flight Duty Time Limitation (FDTL) rules, increasing pilots’ rest time from 36 to 48 hours, which led to a severe pilot shortage in IndiGo, cancellation of hundreds of flights, and grave inconvenience to passengers across the country.

He said passenger safety was thrown to the wind and other airlines took advantage of the situation to sharply increase fares, exposing a complete failure of the Civil Aviation Ministry.

Bharat also criticised TDP spokespersons on national television for shamelessly eulogising IT Minister Nara Lokesh, claiming he was “reviewing” the crisis from a warroom, only to be grilled by national anchors on what authority Lokesh had over civil aviation, thereby humiliating Telugu people.

He recalled that even after the recent Ahmedabad incident, the Union Minister did not place full details in the public domain and was more interested in shooting reels at the crash site with his social media team.

Bharat pointed out that IndiGo has about 5,400 pilots operating 2,300 flights daily with 434 aircraft, and that the unilateral FDTL change required at least 900 more pilots without any review or recruitment plan.