Of Haj Pilgrims and Unruly Fliers

Or “The Great Joke that is Indian Media” – Part XII, courtesy BarbarIndians.

*** Excerpted from India’s “insecure” minorities ***

Haj pilgrims confine crew in AI plane for 15 hours

Mumbai, Jan 3, PTI:

Haj pilgrims on board an Air India flight from Jeddah refused to leave the plane on arriving here and confined its cabin crew for 15 hours resenting the diversion of the aircraft from fog-hit Delhi.

Due to fog, the flight AI-891A was diverted to Mumbai at 5.30pm on Saturday and the plane could not leave until 9 pm. When the passengers were asked to deplane and make their way to the transit lounge and hotel for overnight stay, a few of them refused and created a ruckus on board the aircraft.

“The unruly passengers blocked the exits and prevented the security and traffic from coming on board and/or deplaning the other passengers into the parked buses,” a statement issued by All India Cabin Crew Association said. [source: Deccan Herald]

This piece of news was not meant for public consumption, but it made it to you anyway. What you don’t know, couldn’t possibly hurt you, at least not in the immediate future, subject to abrupt changes of course.

By the time news reaches you, several filters get applied. Some of it does not reach you at all, or, sometimes when they do reach you, they get sanitized by the “style guides”. For instance, once the news factory churns out the above piece of news, it becomes something like this:

20 unruly fliers ‘hijack’ AI flight for 15 hrs

Manju V, TNN 4 January 2010, 03:31am IST

MUMBAI: It was a 15-hour nightmare on the ground for over 200 air passengers and flight crew at Mumbai airport thanks to the hijack-like

The unprecedented case of unruly passenger behaviour in the country came about when around 20 Air India passengers—who like hundreds of others found their flight diverted to Mumbai because of fog and technical glitches at Delhi airport—stopped their co-passengers and 12 flight attendants from leaving the aircraft that was parked on the Mumbai tarmac from Saturday evening to Sunday morning. [source: The Times of India]

See, how easy it is? “Haj Pilgrims” become “unruly fliers”, like they say, news is like sausage, you don’t wanna know how it’s made. At least you know the broad outline of how this one panned out, including how the security personnel made no attempt whatsoever trying to rescue the crew. What you don’t know is just how much never makes it beyond the editorial desks.

You didn’t hear about Miraj riots, perhaps you didn’t hear about violent stone and bottle pelting at oncoming cars at Mahim during Muharram either.

*** End ***

I don’t know what to make of this…Is there some kind of self-censorship in operation? Reminds me of the days when newspapers used to report on “clashes between two communities”.

Earlier posts in the series: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10 and Part 11.

Somewhat Related Post: Chhatrapati Shivaji, Afzal Khan and a mini riot.

Headline Image: Courtesy Air India