Indian man shows Koreans, Japanese sitting on airport floor: ‘If they’re Indian, there’d be controversy”

4 min readNew DelhiJul 17, 2026 05:49 PM IST

The creator also pointed to a Korean traveller working from the airport floor, saying Indians would have faced criticism.

Videos of Indians sitting on airport floors while waiting for flights have repeatedly gone viral in recent months, often drawing criticism online. Many social media users have described the behaviour as lacking civic sense. However, an Indian content creator based in South Korea is now challenging that narrative after witnessing travellers from several other countries doing exactly the same.

In a video posted on Instagram by Subtle Crazy Korea on Thursday, the man shared footage from an airport in Vietnam, where he was waiting to board a flight to South Korea. The clip showed groups of passengers seated on the floor around the terminal instead of using chairs.

‘People are sitting because there are no seats’

Explaining what he saw, the creator said the people behind him were Korean and Vietnamese travellers, while Japanese passengers waiting for another flight were sitting on the floor in another section of the airport. He also pointed out that a few of them were eating while waiting.

The man said he had often come across viral videos of Indians doing the same, only to see them become the subject of heated debates online.

“I’ve seen so many videos where Indians are sitting on airport floors, and people start arguing that Indians have no civic sense. Even Indians themselves comment saying, ‘They’ve embarrassed us,’ ‘They’ve ruined our image,’ and so on,” he said in the video.

According to him, the issue is often much simpler than it is made out to be. Airports can get crowded, and passengers may not always find an empty seat.

“This is an airport. If there are no seats available, people sit on the floor. If they’re hungry, they eat. Nobody is judging them by saying they don’t have civic sense,” he said.

Watch the video:

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‘If he were Indian, there would be controversy’

The creator also highlighted a Korean passenger sitting on the floor while working on his laptop. He argued that the reaction would likely have been very different if the person had been Indian.

“I swear, if there was an Indian guy in his place, there would have been a controversy,” he said, adding that social media has created a perception that unfairly singles out Indians. He further claimed that constant criticism of such videos makes many young Indians feel unnecessarily ashamed of their identity.

Internet reacts with divided opinions

The video has attracted a wide range of responses, with some agreeing with his point while others argued that the criticism is not about sitting on the floor alone.

One user commented, “Who said people don’t sit on railway stands, bus stands, and at the airport on the ground? The problem comes there, Indians, when they speak in a voice louder than necessary. They do things that shouldn’t be done at that time. They curse others. They look at women for no reason. And who tells them to do Garba? Who says sing your food? Who says use music? Who says start playing antakshari right now?”

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Another wrote, “That’s true! I have also seen people in Europe sitting on railway station platforms and eating.”

A third person questioned, “They even clean up after eating. What do our people do?”