TDP MP drags own minister Raju to court

Member of Parliament from Telugu Desam Party, J.C. Diwakara Reddy has dragged Union Civil Aviation Minister P. Ashok Gajapathi Raju’s ministry to the Hyderabad High Court over the no-fly order imposed on him by nine domestic airlines after a squabble at the Visakhapatnam airport on 16 June. Gajapathi Raju represents the TDP in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Union Cabinet.

The issue is expected to figure in the monsoon session of Parliament, which begins on Monday, 17 July, as it presents the unique spectacle of an MP filing a case against a Union Ministry headed by his own party’s minister. The MP sought relief from the HC on 10 July, Monday.

Efforts made by senior TDP leaders to sort out the issue by making Diwakar Reddy apologise to IndiGo airline have gone in vain in the last two weeks. Diwakar Reddy misbehaved with the counter staff of IndiGo at Visakhapatnam airport last month, when he was denied a boarding pass as he came late to catch a Hyderabad bound flight. The IndiGo staff lodged a complaint with the Ministry of Civil Aviation as well as the Airports Authority of India, stating that the MP had damaged their computers and printer and also assaulted a manager when he was denied a board- ing pass. The local police recovered the CCTV footage that captured the incident and filed a case against the MP.

After that, besides IndiGo, eight other domestic airlines too imposed a flying ban on the MP, since he refused to tender an apology for his behaviour. Immediately after the incident, the MP left for a two-week long Europe tour and returned home around 30 June. On 9 July, he booked a ticket with True Jet from Hyderabad to Vijayawada, but the airline denied him a boarding pass as he was on the banned list.

The 72-year-old MP told the HC in his petition that “at this age, I cannot find