The latest controversy has sparked a discussion on the social media platform regarding Vistara Airlines and its meal labelling policies. It is accused of communalising food by an X user. The X user, Aarti Tikoo Singh, has asked why Vistara refers to vegetarian meals as ‘Hindu meals’ and chicken meals as ‘Muslim meals,’ which has attracted much criticism and explication from aviation scholars.
Singh was offended when she learnt that Vistara had categorized its meals as ‘Hindu meals’ for vegetarians and ‘Muslim meals’ for non-vegetarians. She questioned the airline, stating, “Who told you that all Hindus are vegetarian and all Muslims are non-vegetarian? Why are you forcing people to eat what they do not want to eat? Who gave you the authority to do this?” The woman also ordered both meals to protest against what she considered as profiling.
The post attracted many users and most of them were outraged by the labelling. Former head of R&AW and current Adviser at ORF Vikram Sood referred to this as “absurd and dangerous descriptions” while another user demanded that the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) step in and put an end to the practice immediately.
But aviation professionals have come to the rescue to explain that these meal labels are part of a universal system used by all airlines around the world. Sanjay Lazar, the CEO of Avialaz said “FYI in general aviation parlance, a Hindu Meal (HNML) is NOT necessarily a Veg meal: it could be a Non Veg meal that is not Halal. Similarly, a Moslem meal (MOML) is a Non-Vegetarian meal that is HALAL.”
Sanjiv Kapoor, former CEO-designate of Jet Airways also said on this matter, he said, "These codes are used by airlines that utilize global distribution systems (GDS) like Amadeus to standardize meal codes across different geographies and connecting flights." “Low-cost carriers do not use these systems and therefore may use different codes. Trust me — have been in aviation 30 years,” he added.
While the discussion goes on, it is unclear whether Vistara or other airlines will change their meal labelling policy to meet the concerns of Singh and other similar critics.
