How A Picture Posted By This Indian Airline Made Twitter Go Berserk

While people fought over Air Vistara's picture, those sitting on the fence were left wondering what the airline would do next

All hell broke loose on Twitter when Air Vistara posted a picture of its staff with Major General (retired) GD Bakshi on April 21. The airline tweeted that it was “honoured” to have Bakshi on the flight and called him “a decorated Kargil war hero”.

vistara major bakshi tweet

A retired Indian Army officer, Bakshi was awarded the Vishisht Seva Medal for commanding a battalion in the Kargil War. He later commanded counter-terrorism drives in the Rajouri-Poonch districts of Jammu & Kashmir. He also served two tenures at the Directorate General of Military Operations.

He came into limelight for delivering a lecture at IIT Madras in 2016 when he reportedly mocked India’s freedom struggle, called for Pakistan to be partitioned into four countries, claimed that Dehradun was originally called “Dehradrone” and justified the use of pellet guns in Kashmir. He also praised Major Gogoi for tying a voter in Jammu & Kashmir to the bonnet of a jeep and parading him around several villages in 2017.

Soon after the airline posted the picture, people on social media demanded that Air Vistara take down the picture.

In response, Air Vistara deleted the picture and issued a statement saying that it did not want its platform “to be disrespectful or hurtful to anyone” and that it was deleting the post with the “objective of deleting such comments” that were disrespectful.

However, many were not amused by the airline’s action and started “#BoycottVistara” that began trending on Twitter.

While people exchanged war of words and tried to pick sides, those sitting on the fence found the situation to be funny, especially for Air Vistara.

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