KUNAL KAMRA, the name that everyone knows who is on social media. This Indian standup comedian was recently banned by 4 Indian airlines and is facing troubles trying to prove that what he did was “questioning”, he was not indulged in “heckling” Arnab Goswami.
However, today people will see that Kunal is not the only Kamra on the face of this Earth. Today we came across an incident which tells us what the other Kunal Kamras in India would be going through because of this ban.
Today, Air India cancelled the ticket of a Kunal Kamra who is in India just to visit his family and was booked on a flight to Mumbai from Jaipur. This Kunal Kamra is a resident of Boston.
He says that on the afternoon of 3rd February he was booked on the flight travelling to Mumbai from Jaipur with Air India, which is amongst the 4 Indian airlines that have banned Kunal Kamra – standup comedian – from travelling in their flights. The other 3 airlines being GoAir, IndiGo, and SpiceJet.
Also Read: Kunal Kamra Gets 6 Months Ban From IndiGo For Heckling Arnab Goswami
When Boston based Kunal Kamra reached the check-in counter at the airport, he was informed that his PNR has been cancelled. He explains, “I was told that my PNR was cancelled and when I asked them why? they said that my name had been blacklisted. I could understand why, but I did not understand why particularly I was blacklisted. I knew why the other Kunal Kamra was blacklisted”.
Having said that, the ground crew of Air India were helpful but the whole scenario was gruesome. He said “The Air India people were very helpful, luckily, I had ample time before the flight, so everything was sorted out. They were able to issue me another ticket but what was most annoying for me was that the burden of proof was on me. So I had to prove that I am not this person”.
He continued by saying “I was not informed before my flight that my ticket was cancelled. I never received a proper explanation as to why MY ticket was cancelled. Basically, the only reason they cancelled my ticket is because my name is the exact same as that of another person. The problem with that is that if you were to cancel my ticket just based on my name, that is not acceptable because a lot of people might have the same name”.
It took him 2 different ID cards for Kunal to prove that he was not the standup comedian Kunal Kamra. He said that “The whole scenario was really confusing because first, the Jaipur airport security had to clear me, then Air India had to clear me and I needed clearance from both these parties to get on the flight. The airline took a copy of my Aadhar card and it was enough for them, but the security wasn’t convinced with all my Indian IDs so I had to show them my American ID, which finally worked.
It was just a very unpleasant experience”. When he was on his way to Mumbai to take another flight to Delhi. This time the airline was IndiGo, what luck, right? Learning from his experience he spoke to the IndiGo team beforehand and made sure that he informed them that he was a different Kunal Kamra and his ticket should not be cancelled.
