Union Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan slammed the services of the Tata Group-operated Air India over a “broken and sunken” seat while calling the services upgrade under the conglomerate a “misconception”.

The Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare was travelling to Delhi on an Air India flight to inaugurate the Kisan Mela in Pusa, attend a Natural Farming Mission meeting in Kurukshetra, and engage with Kisan Sangathan representatives in Chandigarh.

However, the seat in the airline that was allotted to the union minister was broken. “It was uncomfortable to sit,” Chouhan said in a post on the social media platform ‘X’, explaining how the Air India management is “cheating” the passengers.

“The management had been informed earlier that this seat was not good and its ticket should not be sold,” the airline staff told Chouhan when confronted. “There are not just one such seat but many more.”

Chouhan’s co-passengers requested him to change seats and sit on a better seat, he explained in the post. “But why should I cause trouble to another friend, I decided that I would complete my journey by sitting on this seat only,” he said.