Telugu Desam Party MP JC Diwakar Reddy, who has been barred from flying by seven domestic airlines in India over his unruly behaviour, surprised everybody by taking an international flight to leave for Europe.
Diwakar Reddy, who is facing all round flak after he created ruckus at the Visakahapatanam airport on Thursday and misbehaved with the staff of IndiGo airlines, boarded Emirates flight at Hyderabad International Airport to Dubai enroute to Paris last night. He was accompanied by 11 members of his family.
His brother and MlA J C Prabhakar Reddy said that his tour was planned much in advance and it was an annual routine for the family to take a vacation. “It has nothing to do with what happened over the last two days. His trip abroad was not planned over night. It was there on the agenda for a long time,” he said.
Before his departure Diwakar Reddy maintained that he will not tender any apology to anybody as he had done nothing wrong.
Talking to media, the Anantapur MP said that he would fight against the treatment meted out to him and raise the matter in lok Sabha. “Self respect is more important to me than any other thing,” he said adding that if needed he will resign from the lok Sabha.
“I will write to the Civil Aviation Ministry on my return from Paris about the incident at Vizag airport and how I am being made a scapegoat,” he said. He demanded action against the IndiGo staff for deliberately denying him the Boarding Pass.
Reddy alleged that the airlines were fleecing the passengers by making over bookings and denying the boarding passes to the passengers to make more money on the subsequent flight tickets. “I am collecting all the details and I will fight to protect my rights as a citizen and MP,” he said.
Reddy’s abusive behavior with the IndiGo staff after he was refused boarding pass for coming late, has earned him a ban by almost all the domestic airlines. However, even after the incident, IndiGo was forced to issue him a boarding pass and allow him to travel by the same fight has raised many an eyebrows. Questions were being raised, who had forced the airlines to issue the boarding pass even though the MP had come much after the stipulated time of 45 minutes before the take off.
It was understood that Union Civil Aviation Minister P Ashok Gajpati Raju, who belongs to the same TDP as Diwakar Reddy might have intervened on his behalf. But amid the growing criticism, the Minister has washed his hands off and said that he had not made any intervention. Taking a serious note of the incident, the Minister has ordered a high level probe and asked for a report from the Visakhapatanam airport authorities.
The entire episode has landed the TDP and its president N Chandrababu Naidu in embarrassment. Even Naidu was not aware of Reddy’s plans to fly out of the country in the midst of controversy. He left at a time when Naidu had convened a meeting of party leaders from Anantapur district to resolve the issue by persuading Reddy to tender an apology. Now they will have to wait till Reddy’s return next month.