Spoof video shows Qatar Airways CEO offer plane to man who called for 'bycott' of airline

CEO of Qatar Airways Akbar Al Baker appears to say in the spoof video, "Vashudev is our biggest shareholder with a total investment of Rs 624.5. We are requesting Vashudev to take this call for boycott back." (Image credit: Screengrab from video shared by @AhadunAhad11111/Twitter)

After Qatar expressed strong objection to controversial remarks made against Prophet Muhammad by BJP members, "bycottQatarAirways" began to trend on Twitter on Tuesday.

The trend also brought to the front a spoof video posted by Twitter user Ahad (@AhadunAhad11111) in which the CEO of Qatar Airways Akbar Al Baker appears to appeal to one of the Twitter users to take back his call to "bycott" the airline.

"I cancelled all my meetings and flew straight to Qatar because Vashudev is our biggest shareholder. And he decided to boycott our lines from his headquarters which is the terrace of his house," Al Baker appears to say in an interview with Al Jazeera. "He was having a powercut at that time in his neighbourhood and he made that devastating video."

Read more: Indian envoys summoned in Qatar, Kuwait, Iran over remarks against Prophet Mohammad; Oman calls for boycott of Indian products

The Qatar Airways CEO further goes on to reiterate, "Vashudev is our biggest shareholder with a total investment of Rs 624.5. We don't know how to operate anymore. I have grounded all the flights. Our flights are not operating anymore. We are requesting Vashudev to take this call for boycott back."

The video also did not hold back from pointing out the spelling mistake in the trending hashtag.

The CEO of Qatar airways now gives an interview to Aljazeera on the call for #BycottQatarAirwaysQatar by Vashudev
Watch till the end! https://t.co/ezBC8wYcv6 pic.twitter.com/8dkRZsCPHp

— Ahad (@AhadunAhad11111) June 7, 2022

"And this is a special kind of boycott because it is 'bycott' -- another level of 'boycott'," Al Baker appears to say in the spoof video.

He then goes on to appeal to the Twitter user to take back his call for boycott and offers to gift him a plane or two litres of petrol in exchange.

"Vashudev habibi, we are willing to give you one whole plane to make your TikTok videos, or maybe we can give you two litres of petrol free so you take this call for boycott back otherwise how will we survive?" Al Baker says in the spoof video.

The video was directed at Twitter user Vashudev (@thevashudevIND), who in a tweet, requested people to boycott Qatar because the country where artist MF Hussain was granted citizenship. Vashudev and many others like him called for boycott saying that Qatar is the same nation where artist Maqbool Fida Hussain (MF Hussain) was given the citizenship.

I'm against Qatar Airways. #BycottQatarAirways pic.twitter.com/WoKISogFtl

— Vashudev (@thevashudevIND) June 6, 2022

The tweets allege that Hussain painted nude and obscene photos of Hindu deities and the same country advising India on blasphemy over a statement made by BJP leader Nupur Sharma was uncalled for.