Hey IndiGo, can I wear shorts on your 6E flight today?

Bang in the middle of its IPO, budget carrier IndiGo has got caught in a fracas of its own making. The Indian Express reports that IndiGo offloaded a woman passenger for wearing a dress that was just above knee length, something that’s not all that uncommon in urban India and certainly shouldn’t be on a flight between India’s commercial capital Mumbai and the national capital Delhi, both aspiring world cities.

Considering the shenanigans of the self-proclaimed defenders of India’s glorious culture in recent months—who want to decide what you can eat, wear, read and watch, this couldn’t have come at a worse time. All we needed was a successful, respected, modern private Indian enterprise in a flamboyant business taking on the role of the moral police. IndiGo may have nothing to do with the lunatic fringe of India’s right wing, but they have themselves to blame if wags ask today if khaki shorts would be okay on IndiGo flights.

All businesses make mistakes and airlines, being at the forefront of the service industry, certainly make their share of mistakes as American carrier United did with D’Arcee Neal, who is afflicted with cerebral palsy a few days ago at Washington DC. But United profusely apologized and the manager on duty was suspended.

In IndiGo’s case, the media report claims that the response was one that would make the Talibanesque self-proclaimed defenders of Indian culture proud—the woman who dared to wear a dress above her knees was a former IndiGo employee and her sister is a current IndiGo employee. So IndiGo dusted off dress code manuals perhaps written centuries ago and defended itself to The Indian Express by pointing out that staff and nominated family are required to follow a dress code when flying IndiGo under staff leisure travel privileges.

The interesting thing is that the lady in question landed in Mumbai from Doha, Qatar and the staff at the airport in that Islamic nation had no problem with her dress. And she finally had to change to trousers to take another IndiGo flight. Other fliers who tried to intervene were allegedly coerced by IndiGo’s Mumbai staff into minding their own business.

That leaves me wondering, where does this extend to? I was planning to wear shorts on my IndiGo flight later today. Could IndiGo’s moral policing staff have a problem with hairy legs? What if the IndiGo manual has something about exposing hairy legs?

And even more importantly, don’t IndiGo’s efficient cabin attendants themselves wear classy Western attire with wigs, et al? The reality is that IndiGo cabin crew dresses end above the knee too! Plus, they are hardly the representation of the quintessential ‘Bharatiya naari’ that our friends from the fringe want every Indian woman to aspire to.

If you go by dress alone, it’s only Air India that commonly has traditional Indian attire for female members of its cabin crew—and I certainly don’t mean that Air India is regressive because of its Indian attire—I think it stands out and looks great. And new entrant Vistara also has beautiful Indian styled attire options for its female cabin crew.

But, If IndiGo crew wear Western skirts themselves, which end above the knee, how can a flier (whether on a paid ticket or a staff ticket) be stopped for a dress that’s slightly above the knees? And instead of apologizing and tell its staffers to focus on simply flying on time, why is IndiGo throwing manuals at us?

As part of its IPO, IndiGo’s ad campaign is all about informing Indians that “everyone knows IndiGo flies on time but there’s a lot more to IndiGo that makes us who we are.” Today, thanks to IndiGo’s staffers in Mumbai, we came to know that it includes a hypocritical dress code for women who may be travelling on a staff ticket—in IndiGo uniform you can wear a dress that’s above knee length, but otherwise as a woman you may have to wear trousers.

So, let me know IndiGo—can I wear shorts on my IndiGo flight later today? I would think it would have been best if you were known only for flying on time, that has made you the most successful airline in India today, but now I’m left wondering.