Air India (AI) on Saturday apologised for publishing an article that said non-vegetarian dishes were served at the Jagannath Temple in Puri. “AI apologises for the error. Our intention was not to hurt sentiments. Shubh Yatra magazine copies have been removed with immediate effect,” tweeted the airline.
Acting on a flyer-reader’s complaint that was forwarded by Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, Air India on Saturday withdrew copies of its in-flight magazine Shubh Yatra from all their planes. Shubh Yatra is printed by Delhi-based Maxposure Group.
The article published in Octobers’s Shubh Yatra said, “Said to be the largest in the country, the Jagannath Temple’s kitchen in Puri since its inception has had an army of 500 cooks and 300 helpers to serve 1,00,000 people daily round-the-clock — which means almost 285 varieties of vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes every day.” This patently wrong information had upset lakhs of lord Jagannath’s devotees, including the Petroleum Minister.
Air India Managing Director Ashwani lohani assured the Minister that the writer in question had been blacklisted by the airline. However, the printing of such an outrageous lie has brought into question issues of editorial oversight of the publisher and the airline.
Ashwani lohani tweeted, “I, AI CMD Ashwani lohani, offer my apologies regarding the article on Shubh Yatra. Corrective action has been taken regarding the same.”