After Air India, GoAir discontinues boarding passes with PM's picture
What's the story
After Air India, GoAir has decided to discontinue their boarding passes featuring the pictures of PM Narendra Modi and Gujarat CM, Vijay Rupani. Yesterday, Air India withdrew the passes after former Punjab DGP Shashi Kant's tweet sparked a controversy, saying that the pictures violated the Model Code of Conduct. Earlier, Indian Railways also discontinued the tickets with PM's picture after TMC complained to EC.
Details
Have taken cue from Election Code of Conduct: GoAir
After the boarding pass controversy caught pace, Omar Abdullah, former Jammu and Kashmir CM, tweeted that GoAir flight gave him a similar boarding pass the previous day. In a statement, a GoAir spokesperson said, "We have taken a cue from the Election Code of Conduct. We have instructed our airport teams to stop utilizing this type of paper with immediate effect."
Quote
The use of Vibrant Gujarat boarding pass unintentional, says spokesperson
"GoAir's Srinagar Airport team inadvertently utilized unused stock of Vibrant Gujarat (a biennial investors' summit) related paper, which took place in January 18-20, 2019 for issuing boarding passes at the said airport. It was unintentional," said a GoAir spokesperson in an official statement.
Air India
After controversy over pictures, Air India roll back boarding passes
The controversy surfaced when Kant tweeted a picture of his Air India boarding pass issued at Delhi Airport, and wrote, "Wonder why we're wasting public money on this Election Commission, which doesn't see, hear or speak." Air India's spokesperson in a statement said, "Air India has decided to roll back the boarding passes of Vibrant Gujarat with photos of the PM and Gujarat CM."
Controversy
Earlier, Railways withdrew tickets with PM's picture after TMC's complaint
Earlier on March 21, the Indian Railways had to discontinue the issuance of railway tickets with the pictures of PM Modi after Trinamool Congress (TMC) reported the issue to the Election Commission of India. The TMC delegation accused Bharatiya Janata Party of violating the Model Code of Conduct. The country is set to go into a seven-phase general election, starting April 11 onwards.
Explanation
Model Code of Conduct allows no advertisements on government property
Model Code of Conduct is a set of guidelines issued by the Election Commission to keep a check on the political parties in the run-up to the elections and comes into effect after the announcement of the elections. Political parties can't advertise using government's money on any public property like train, airplane and government infrastructure. Any public undertaking can't bear endorsement for parties.