Vistara tenders apology to G D Bakshi over tweet controversy

Two senior executives of Vistara tendered an apology to retired Major General G D Bakshi following a controversy over the airline tweeting, and later deleting, a photo of him with its crew members inside a plane.

The full service carrier, on Sunday, tweeted the photo saying it was honoured to have Bakshi onboard. The tweet attracted criticism, with many citing allegedly controversial comments made by him on various occasions.

Following criticism on the social media platform, the carrier deleted the tweet and issued a statement saying that it does not want its platform to be disrespectful to anyone. However, the deletion of the tweet also attracted the ire of various Twitter users.

Against this backdrop, Vistara executives met Bakshi and tendered an apology.

"It was very nice of Vistara airlines to send two senior officials to my house to tender an apology over the tweeting incident. It was a thoughtful gesture of consideration for the feelings of an old solider," Bakshi said in a Facebook post Monday evening.

A photo of him with Vistara's senior officials -- Chief Strategy and Commercial Officer Sanjiv Kapoor and Chief Human Resources Officer Deepa Chadha -- was also put out in the post.

There was no statement from Vistara about the meeting.

In a statement issued Sunday, Vistara said it routinely posts happy photos of its customers onboard, along with the crew.

"However, a recent such post generated numerous comments that were disrespectful to all parties concerned," it said.