Our political class never cease to amaze us. Where on the one hand they frequently make breathtaking displays of their prejudices, ignorance and regressive mindsets, on the other, they delight in throwing their weight around and acting entitled simply because they were elected to an office of power by the people. Shiv Sena MP Ravindra Gaikwad has recently hogged the headlines for many of the wrong reasons, but also some of the right ones:
Members of Parliament have various perks and privileges, including open business class tickets. This particular member of parliament evidently took his entitlement extremely seriously and was very upset that the Pune-Delhi flight he boarded was an all economy flight. So upset was he, that when his plane landed in Delhi, he refused to budge; did not even let staff clean the plane to prepare for the next flight. The plane and 115 people were delayed by 40 minutes because of this.
60 year old Customer Relationship Manager, Shiv kumar from Air India had to come to the flight to mollify the MP. There was a war of words and this quickly escalated to physical scuffle; by his own admission the MP thrashed senior AI staffer; hit him 25 times with his slipper and almost pushed him off the air stairs.
Ravindra Gaikwad has no difficultly admitting that he physically assaulted another person in a violent rage. He has spoken about it in detail to supposedly justify his actions. He seems to have no problem admitting that he committed assault and clearly feels that he was the wronged one for not getting a business class seat on an all economy flight.
There are calls for strict action against the MP. However, according to a senior functionary of the Shiv Sena, this would upset the party cadres who are “steeped in the Sena's culture of street violence”. Though Gaikwad has been asked by the party to provide an explanation for his conduct, the MP and the party overall remains defiant. Party leader Sanjay Raut defended his colleague saying that the national carrier AI needed to ‘introspect’ and to ponder over possible blacklisting by the public.
It is reported that that MP tore away the button of the Air India officer’s cardigan, broke his specs and humiliated him in front of other crew members. This is what he had to say for himself. For this part, R Sukumar Deputy General Manager, was quoted as saying “God save our country if this is the culture and behaviour of our MPs.”
In a rather unprecedented move, all major airlines showed solidarity for their assaulted colleague and responded by putting the MP on a no-fly list. So, although Gaikwad had said that he would be flying back to Pune on his confirmed ticket and in a sense dared anyone to try and stop him, he was forced to eat humble pie and had to take the train back to Pune. The Delhi police has also registered two FIRs against the MP and the matter will now be investigated by the crime branch. Us the common people can only cheer.
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