Marie Antoinette, the last queen of France, is famously believed to have responded to starving Parisians with the words, “Let them eat cake.” Whether she actually said those words is disputed, but over the decades it has become a metaphor for indifference to ordinary people's hardships. A similar indifference signifies the government’s approach to the skyrocketing cost of air travel in India.

Indian domestic airfares are rising at an unprecedented rate, with trunk routes up to 700 per cent, leading to the cancellation of the travel plans of scores of Indians ahead of the festive season. A Delhi-Kolkata ticket, which ordinarily costs around Rs 10,000-11,000, reportedly touched Rs 78,694. Such high airfares cannot........

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