The controversy on Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann being deplaned from a Lufthansa flight at the Frankfurt airport allegedly for being inebriated on Saturday refuses to die down. Even as the opposition parties in the State continue to attack the Chief Minister and the ruling Aam Aadmi Party over the issue, the Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia on Tuesday said that he would look into the allegations.
Scindia, giving a new twist to the raging controversy, said that he would investigate the matter based on the requests made to him. “The incident took place in the international soil. We will have to make sure that we verify facts, and it is up to Lufthansa to provide the data,” said Scindia.
He added, “Based on the request sent to me, I will certainly look into it.”
Notably, the Leader of Opposition in Punjab Vidhan Sabha Partap Singh Bajwa had, on Monday, written to the Civil Aviation Minister to investigate the matter. However, Scindia did not specify on whose request he had decided to conduct the probe.
“I have requested the Civil Aviation Minister in regards to the incident as such incidents involving personalities that represent India, the whole Nation feels ashamed,” said Bajwa.
He said: “I have urged the Aviation Minister to get in touch with the Lufthansa airlines and specifically ask them to inform us whether the Punjab Chief Minister was offloaded or not. Nobody is interested in knowing that the flight was late, the people of Punjab are interested in knowing why the Chief Minister of the state was offloaded .”
Bajwa, in his letter to Scindia on Monday, had requested him to initiate a probe to verify the facts regarding the deplaning of Mann. “If it (the news of the Punjab CM being drunk) were true, it is certainly a bad reflection on the office Bhagwant Mann is holding. Therefore, I would request you to kindly initiate an inquiry for verification of this news from Lufthansa Airlines as it involves not only an individual but the office he represents and such conduct needs to be deprecated,” the letter read.
Going into background of the matter, Mann, while returning from official visit to Germany from September 11-18, was deplaned in Frankfurt on his Delhi-bound Lufthansa flight as he was allegedly in inebriated state. Even as the AAP rubbished the reports as “baseless rumours” while asserting that the Chief Minister was “unwell” and chose to take a later flight, the eyewitness reports suggested that Mann boarded the flight, but was inebriated and couldn’t stand without being supported.
The flight was delayed by “three hours” because of a late inbound flight and an aircraft change but it got further delayed as the person and his team’s luggage were taken out amid a heated exchange between some passengers and the cabin crew, the reports added.
Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal had urged the Union Government to step in and take up the matter with the German government; while the Leader of Opposition In Vidhan Sabha and senior Congress leader Partap Singh Bajwa demanded Mann’s resignation.
Congress MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira too sought clarification on why Mann was deplaned and demanded a public apology from the chief minister for “humiliating Punjab”.
SUKHBIR DEMANDS PROBE INTO FRANKFURT INCIDENT
SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal on Tuesday demanded a probe into the Chief Minister Frankfurt airport deboarding incident, while urging the Punjab Governor Banwari lal Purohit to dismiss Bhagwant Mann from his post.
“Such a person should not be allowed to continue in office any longer”, he said, adding that the Chief Minister’s actions have lowered the prestige of Punjab and Punjabis.
Sukhbir disclosed how he had talked to two passengers who were on the same flight as the Chief Minister to verify the incident. “While one of the passengers, an industrialist, was in the first class the other, an hotelier from Rajasthan, was in the business class. Both said that Bhagwant Mann had fallen down on the first seat after entering the aircraft,” he added.
He said that following this, the air hostess informed the Chief Minister about his seat which was a little to the back and that Mann proceeded to his seat swaying from one side to another. “Following this, the air hostess informed the Captain about the situation and it was the Captain who came to the spot and took the decision to deboard the Chief Minister,” he said.
Asserting that the plane was late as disclosed by Lufthansa, Sukhbir said: “Lufthansa has never said that Bhagwant Mann was not drunk and that the deboarding incident did not take place. In fact, the airline has refused to disclose the incident citing privacy laws”.
SAD chief also questioned how the Chief Minister fell ill suddenly after enjoying the comfort of the VIP lounge at the Frankfurt airport for nearly two hours.