NEW DELHI: Telugu Desam Party (TDP) MP Diwakar Reddy, who was banned from flying on all major domestic airlines for his alleged misbehaviour with an IndiGo airline staffer, was on Wednesday allowed to fly again by the same airline without any apology. Soon after IndiGo gave the big relief to Reddy, most other domestic airlines including Air India, SpiceJet, and Vistara followed suit and revoked the flying ban.
GoAir, which had also banned Reddy, refused to comment on the matter.
Budget carrier IndiGo issued a statement saying the issue was “amicably resolved” on Wednesday at a lunch hosted by Reddy’s colleague YS Chaudhary, who is also the union minister of state for ministry of science and technology and earth sciences. The airline further stated that Reddy will also withdraw the case he had filed against the airline in the same matter. Incidentally, civil aviation minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju belongs to the same political party as Reddy.
The statement issued on Wednesday by IndiGo read, “Senior IndiGo officials today met Diwakar Reddy at a lunch hosted by senior MP YS Chaudhary, to resolve the issue. The issue is amicably resolved between the two and IndiGo has decided to lift the said ban with immediate effect and Reddy is withdrawing the case he has filed.”
Reddy, who is Lok Sabha MP from Anantapur, had approached Hyderabad High Court challenging the ban and had sought the court’s direction to consequently direct the airlines to immediately allow him to fly in all domestic flights.
On June 16, Reddy allegedly misbehaved with IndiGo staff at the Vishakhapatnam airport when they refused to give him a boarding pass for his flight to Hyderabad since the gates had been closed. The lawmaker went on to shout at the airline employees, and surveillance footage showed him banging his hands on a printer and pushing an IndiGo staffer.
The incident with Reddy, and the response from the airlines, was a near repeat of what had happened with another member of Parliament who had misbehaved with an Air India staffer. Shiv Sena MP Ravindra Gaikwad was also temporarily banned by airlines after he assaulted an Air India staffer, triggering a controversy that prompted the civil aviation ministry to release proposed rules for a national no-fly list for unruly passengers. The rules, yet to be formalised, propose a ban on flying from at least three months up to an indefinite period for unruly behaviour with airline staff.