Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday alleged that the IndiGo "fiasco" is the cost of this government's "monopoly model" and asserted that India deserves fair competition in every sector, not match-fixing monopolies.
In the wake of IndiGo cancelling over 550 flights on Thursday alone and 400 flights on Friday, disrupting the travel plans of hundreds of passengers, Gandhi said it is ordinary Indians who pay the price in delays, cancellations and helplessness.
"IndiGo fiasco is the cost of this Govt's monopoly model. Once again, it's ordinary Indians who pay the price - in delays, cancellations and helplessness," the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha said in a post on X.
"India deserves fair competition in every sector, not match-fixing monopolies," Gandhi asserted.
The former Congress president also shared his article from last year in which he had said that the original East India Company wound up over 150 years ago but the raw fear it then generated is back with a new breed of monopolists having taken its place.
He had asserted that a "new deal for progressive Indian business is an idea whose time has come".
Sharing the article on X on November 6 last year, Gandhi had said, "Choose your India: Play-Fair or Monopoly? Jobs or Oligarchies? Competence or Connections? Innovation or Intimidation? Wealth for many or the few?"
"I write on why a New Deal for Business isn't just an option. It is India's future," he had said, sharing his opinion piece.
IndiGo on Thursday told aviation watchdog DGCA that operations are expected to be fully stabilised by February 10, 2026, and sought temporary relaxations in flight duty norms on a day when the country's largest airline cancelled more than 550 flights, disrupting the travel plans of hundreds of passengers.
Acknowledging that the flight disruptions happening for the past few days are primarily due to misjudgment and planning gaps in implementing the second phase of the Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL) norms, IndiGo also informed the regulator that there will be more cancellations till December 8 and from that day, there will also be a reduction in services.
Civil Aviation Minister K Rammohan Naidu had held a high-level review meeting to assess the situation of significant flight disruptions and expressed his displeasure at the way IndiGo handled the new FDTL norms implementation despite having ample time.