The directive applies to all Air India flights (Image: GETTY)
In a directive signed off by Captain Amitabh-Singh, the airline’s director of operations, staff were ordered to begin using the expression “with immediate effect”. The very specific instructions require then to say the patriotic phrase “after a slight pause” and “with much fervour”. Air India’s new rules are likely to be a reflection of heightened tensions between the two nuclear powers.
Last month, a suicide car bombing in Indian-controlled Kashmir resulted in the deaths of 44 Indian paramilitary.
India responded by bombing a militant camp which it said was a base for militant Pakistani organisation Jaish-e-Mohammed.
Officials claimed the raid had killed at least 300 militants, although Pakistan denied this.
Pakistan forces then shot down two Indian jets which had crossed into the country’s airspace, before handing the pilot, Abhinandan Varthaman, back in a highly publicised “goodwill gesture”.
