New Delhi, Dec. 5 -- Congress leader Rahul Gandhi alleged on Friday that the IndiGo "fiasco" is the cost of the BJP-led Centre's "monopoly model" and asserted that India deserves fair competition in every sector, not "match-fixing monopolies".

In the wake of IndiGo cancelling more than 550 flights on Thursday and 400 on Friday, disrupting the travel plans of hundreds of passengers, Gandhi said ordinary Indians are paying the price in delays, cancellations and helplessness.

"IndiGo fiasco is the cost of this government's monopoly model. Once again, it's ordinary Indians who pay the price -- in delays, cancellations and helplessness," he said in a post on X. "India deserves fair competition in every sector, not match-fixing monopolies," he added.

The former Congress chief also shared an article of his published in a newspaper last year, in which he had said the original East India Company wound up more than 150 years ago but the raw fear it then generated is back with a new breed of monopolists having taken its place.

Gandhi had asserted that a "new deal for progressive Indian business is an idea whose time has come". Sharing the article on X on November 6 last year, Gandhi had said, "Choose your India: Play-Fair or Monopoly? Jobs or Oligarchies? Competence or Connections? Innovation or Intimidation? Wealth for many or the few?"

"I write on why a New Deal for Business isn't just an option. It is India's future," he had said, sharing his opinion piece.

Congress's media department head Pawan Khera said what is happening at the airports today is the result of a monopoly or a duopoly. "It was said that people wearing slippers would board airplanes. But at airports, shoes and slippers are being exchanged between passengers and Indigo staff.

"Two people will run the party. Two people will run the government. Two people will run the businesses. So, this is what will happen," Khera said in a post. He said "92 per cent of the share in our airline sector is in the hands of just two companies -- Indigo and Tata. The government had to bow down before them, and the new passenger safety guidelines had to be withdrawn due to pressure from these companies".

Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.