Passengers are stranded at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport amid the disruption of an IndiGo flight in Ahmedabad, Friday, December 5, 2025. | Photo credit: PTI
Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Friday blamed what he called the “monopoly model of the Centre” for widespread disruptions at IndiGo, arguing that India needed fair competition instead of “match-fixing monopolies”.
As IndiGo canceled nearly 1,000 flights on Friday, causing chaos at airports and leaving thousands of passengers stranded, Gandhi said ordinary passengers were paying the price for the policy’s failure.
“The IndiGo fiasco is the cost of this government’s monopoly model. Once again, it is ordinary Indians who will pay the price for delays, cancellations and helplessness,” the opposition leader said in a post on social media platform X, adding, “India deserves fair competition in every sector, not monopolies to influence outcomes.”
Mr Gandhi also shared an opinion piece he had written last year in which he argued that a new class of monopolists had replaced the fear once associated with the East India Company. At the time, he called for a “new deal for progressive Indian business”.
Congress general secretary (organization) KC Venugopal claimed that the mass cancellations were the result of the government being “asleep at the wheel” and accused the Narendra Modi government of reducing the once competitive aviation sector to a virtual duopoly.
“Modi govt has reduced a once competitive industry to two players and put corporate greed over passenger interests. Lakhs of passengers are left helpless at airports for over 8 hours only to be told their flights have been cancelled. What mechanism has @MoCA_GoI put in place to ensure full refunds to passengers for these canceled flights?” the congressman asked.
“From the collapse of Jet Airways and Go First to the monopolistic merger of Air India, every step that contributed to this disastrous outcome took place under their watch. As a result, ordinary travelers who need urgent travel can no longer afford tickets, a situation of zero accountability for the airlines or @MoCA_GoI and now a nationwide grounding,” he added.
Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera said the chaos at airports is a direct result of excessive concentration of market power. “It was said that people wearing slippers would fly. But now they exchange shoes and slippers at airports between passengers and employees. Two people run a party, two run a government, two run businesses, this is the result,” Mr Khera said in a post on X.
Communist Party of India General Secretary D. Raja said his party had warned the government that near-monopoly control over the civil aviation sector would ultimately jeopardize passenger safety, burden pilots and crew and empower private airlines at the cost of the public interest. “The current collapse of operations at IndiGo vindicates these concerns,” Mr. Raja wrote on X.
BJP MP Jagdambika Pal raised the issue during the zero hour in the Lok Sabha and urged the government to restore normalcy as soon as possible.
“We are in Parliament from Monday to Friday, but on Saturday and Sunday we all have programs in our constituencies… Some have to go to Bengaluru, some to Kolkata, some to Chennai,” Mr. Pal said, adding that the sudden cancellations threw those plans into disarray. “My evening flight has been cancelled. The next morning flight has also been cancelled,” he added.
Published – 05 Dec 2025 20:44 IST
