Hyderabad: Four more domestic airlines in India have put a Member of Parliament on their no-flight list following his outrageous and aggressive behaviour with an airline employee at Visakhapatnam airport yesterday.
With this the total number of airlines refusing to fly the Telugu Desam MP JC Diwakar Reddy has gone up to seven.
Indigo was the first airline to bar Reddy from flying after he allegedly misbehaved with its staff at the check-in counter on Thursday morning. Soon Air India and SpiceJet also announced a similar action against him. Today they were joined by AirAsia, GoAir, Jet Airways and Vistara in putting the MP on their no-flight list.
Union Civil Aviation Ministry has ordered a probe into the matter and has asked the Visakhapatnam airport authorities to submit a report along with CCTV footage.
JC Diwakar Reddy, who represents Anantpaur Lok Sabha constituency of Andhra Pradesh, is from the Telugu Desam Party to which country’s civil aviation minister P Ashok Gajapatai Raju also belongs.
Diwakar Reddy, known for his aggressive posturing and brusque way of dealing with people, was involved in a fracas with the airport staff for second time in 8 months. He was a six-term member of the state assembly on Congress ticket and was elected to Lok Sabha in 2014 as a Telugu Desam candidate.
In the latest incident, he allegedly damaged airline property and pushed an employee of IndiGo Airlines after he was refused a boarding pass as he had turned up after the counter was closed.
For the Visakhapatanam-Hyderabad flight scheduled to leave at 0810am, the MP had reported at 7-42am while the Directorate General of Civil Aviation Regulation requires all the passengers to report 45 minutes before the scheduled take-off time.
The CCTV footage shows the MP noisily arguing with the employee at the counter and lifting the printer from the desk before banging it back.
He could also be seen rushing after another senior official of the airlines demanding a boarding pass, claiming that he had come on time.
Apparently, the airlines issued him the boarding pass on the intervention of the Civil Aviation Minister Gajapatati Raju who was on the same flight and was in another part of the Visakhapatanam airport when the incident occurred.
Initially, airlines officials refused to comment on the incident and did not lodge any complaint with the police. But after a preliminary probe IndiGo decided to take action in the matter and barred the MP from flying on its planes.
“IndiGo confirms the incident of an unruly behaviour on board of 6E 608 en route from Vizag to Hyderabad. The MP JC Diwakar Reddy who was scheduled to fly with IndiGo reported 28 minutes before the scheduled departure. The staff politely informed him that boarding for flight 6E 608 was closed and offered to accommodate Reddy in the subsequent flight. Reddy expressed his annoyance and raged against the staff using aggressive and abusive behaviour,” the airlines said in a statement.
Diwakar Reddy on his part denied any wrong doing and said that he had not pushed anybody. “I had only put my arm on his shoulder in a friendly manner, but it was interpreted in a wrong way,” he said, rejecting the demand for an apology.
In October last J C Diwakar Reddy was involved in a similar fracas with the Air India staff at the Gannavaram airport of Vijayawada over his late arrival to take a flight. However, the matter was not pursued.
It is also a second incident of a Member of Parliament being barred from flying by many airlines. In March last year Shiv Sena MP from Beed in Maharashtra, Ravindra Gaikwad, was barred from flights after he allegedly beat an Air India official with his slipper as he was not given a Business Class seat as there was simply no Business class section on the flight.
However, behind-the-scenes political pressure from the government forced the airlines to lift the ban on Gaikwad. But this time such a possibility looked remote as Diwakar Reddy’s own party TDP was unhappy with his behaviour.
Ashok Gajapati Raju expressed his unhappiness with the MP for lying to him. “He had told me that he had arrived at the airport one hour before the flight time but the CCTV footage shows he had come later,” the minister said.
“I will get the entire incident at Vizag Airport inquired into find out the exact details and ensure that lawful outcome follows,” Raju tweeted.
TDP sources said that the party president and Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu was also upset that such incidents were tarnishing the image of the party. Naidu deputed a close confidante and member of Rajya Sabbha, CM Ramesh, to meet Diwakar Reddy and persuade him to apologise.
Many other senior leaders of the party have also met Diwakar Reddy and urged him to tender an apology and close the matter. But MP was stubborn. “There is no question of any apology when I have done nothing wrong,” he said.
