It sounds a bit like a tempest in a teapot: one of India’s most popular and talented singers, Sonu Nigam has been in the eye of a controversy because he sang on board an aircraft using the plane’s public address (PA) system. Following the video of Sonu singing becoming public, the 5 member cabin crew of the Jet Airways flight has been grounded. There have been sharply differing reactions to this incident, with Nigam himself calling this “real intolerance”.

Sing Sonu, sing!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOsyTL5GEaI

He presented a couple of his popular songs aboard a chartered flight from Jodhpur to Mumbai on 4th February presumably because of passenger entreaties. It was just a bit of lighthearted fun on board a plane. And it was a chartered flight so it isn’t as if other passengers on the plane were getting disturbed. In fact Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu has now invited Nigam to sing over the  public address system at railway stations!

Suspending the air crew was surely an overreaction to such a small transgression, if you can even call it that?  This is nothing that other popular singers like him haven’t done several times in the past. The only reason there is such a hue and cry being raised over this incident is because the video went viral and caught the public eye.

Sonu Nigam

Why Sonu shouldn’t have sung

Sonu Nigam

There is a counter view here: a plane’s public address system is an apparatus designed to let the pilots and other air crew communicate with passengers, let them know about flight safety, convey information about upcoming turbulence or precautions that need to be taken. It is not a means for entertaining the passengers just so they can go home and boast about having heard Sonu’s vocal talents at 30,000 feet above the earth.

This incident was in contravention of laid down regulations and set procedures that could have serious consequences. The front galley was unattended, passengers were standing in the aisles and the PA system was misused during the performance – these were all violations of the rules that could potentially endanger lives.

The flight crew should have known better than to let something like this happen. As an artiste, Nigam should have had a better sense of responsibility than to be egged on to sing over the PA system. He could have sung without using the PA system if he felt compelled to entertain the requests of his fans.

So perhaps it is a tempest in a teacup of sorts; but there are good arguments on both sides, wouldn’t you say?

Author – Reena Daruwalla