They just can't insult us by saying that we are bloody Indians: Harbhajan Singh

Indian cricketer Harbhajan Singh has brought to light an alleged incident of racism which took place aboard Jet Airways in early April. The accused named Bernd Hoesslin was an expat pilot and the complaint is that he racially abused two passengers aboard the flight, one of them being physically handicapped.

Harbhajan has sought strict action to be taken against the pilot, even tweeting PM Modi on the issue. The alleged incident took place while one of the passengers, Pooja Gujral, with her friend, who is physically handicapped, was travelling aboard a Chandigarh-Mumbai flight.

After the flight landed in Mumbai, they had to wait for about 20 minutes for the wheelchair to be brought to her friends’ seat. This is when the incident happened as the pilot came up and shouted at them for delaying the flight.

He also pushed away Ms Gujrals hand exclaiming “GET OUT”! When they retaliated, he responded with “YOU BLOODY INDIAN”!

“A friend of mine she told me that this incident happened with her while she was flying from Chandigarh to Mumbai along with a very dear friend of mine, Jitender Shah, who is a Punjabi music director and who is also physically disabled.” Harbhajan said talking to India Today.

“Actually I got to know yesterday about this whole incident that happened. A friend of my wife, Pooja Singh Gujral, told us about this incident happened with them and the pilot was very rude and his behaviour was racist.

Bhajji was fuming over the incident and someone calling an Indian citizen boldly Indian while working in the country. “You can’t tell us bloody Indians, we are proud Indians. He is no one to tell us who we are and what we do. He is earning in our country, he just can’t tell what he feels what so ever,” he added.

Harbhajan demanded strict action against the pilot and also to send him back to his country.

“Indians should be treated like an normal human beings. They just can’t insult us by saying that we are bloody Indians, we are not, we are proud Indians. Whoever the pilot is, tell him he is working here, earning from our pockets, and Jet should sack him and send him back to his own country to earn his money.

“The pilots can’t speak whatever they feel like, this is racial abuse. They not only called him bloody Indian, but pushed this lady as well, saying ‘get out of my flight’. That’s not his private charter.

“I would like each and every Indian to unite with this, whatever happened. Any Indian should not face racial abuse in our own country by someone who is working here. Strict action must be taken,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Jet Airways have issued a statement, saying that the pilot has been derostered pending investigation.

“The pilot has been derostered pending investigation since the time we got to know. We take a very serious view of such issues,” the airline stated.

In an official statement released by Jet Airways, they have said that disciplinary action has been taken against the pilot and he has been detained from the roster since the day of the occurrence and an investigation is under way. “Corrective action will be taken after due investigation. The airline has, as per policy, initiated a full-fledged investigation, based on specific inputs from guests, concerned departments and agencies,” they said.

Ms Gujral had posted about this incident back on April 5 wherein she had also said that she filed a non-cognizable complaint as the police had objected to her filing an FIR. Harbhajan’s tweets have coincided with a number of allegations against the expat pilots of Jet Airways by the Indian Pilots Union, regarding alleged racism.

– Written by Gokul Narayanan