2- man team to inquire into Rahul plane’s snag

As the Congress continued to demand a probe into an incident involving a technical snag in the aircraft carrying party chief Rahul Gandhi from Delhi to poll- bound Karnataka, the government set up a two- member committee to question the cockpit crew and engineers over the “suspicious and faulty performance” of the 10- seater Falcon 2000 plane.

The incident happened during the flight from New Delhi at Hubballi in north Karnataka where it managed to land around 11.25 am in the third attempt on Thursday.

The plane had allegedly developed a technical snag in auto- pilot mode, making it tilt to one side and lose altitude midair.

Congress’ communications in- charge Randeep Surjewala described the incident as “horrific” and “serious” and demanded a probe to find out if there was any “foul play”.

A Congress source said Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to Mr Gandhi to inquire about his safety after the incident.

“It was a private conversation between the two ( over phone),” said the source.

Civil aviation minister Suresh Prabhu said, “If there is anything found wanting and whoever is responsible for it, we will take appropriate action.”

Bantwal ( Karnataka), April 27: A controversy erupted after a video purportedly showing Congress president Rahul Gandhi “disrespecting” national song Vande Mataram at a public rally surfaced and went viral.

The BJP slammed Mr Gandhi, saying he does not have respect for the national song, a charge dismissed by the Congress as “absolutely false.” “He does not have respect for national song. What can we expect from him,” tweeted BJP on its handle. Congress dubbed the video as fake.