Just an ordinary man: Airports begin removing Robert Vadra from no-frisking lists

Robert Vadra, son-in-law of Congress President Sonia Gandhi, has had his name removed from a list of passengers who are exempt from frisking before flying. The Times of India reported that Vadra’s name had been blanked out at the Goa airport, a decision that was also reportedly influenced by passenger anger. “Several passengers used to ask us what Vadra’s credentials were to be on that list. So we plastered it out. Now, many express happiness at not seeing his name,” TOI quoted a security official at the Goa airport as saying. The TOI report said however, that the home ministry was yet to take a call on removing Vadra’s name from the list. [caption id=“attachment_2114349” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  PTI[/caption] The inclusion of Vadra’s name on the list was a constant sore point, especially after he was implicated in a number of land related scams in Haryana. In fact, a petition was started on the online petition site change,org, asking that Vadra’s name be removed from the list: According to this article in the Sunday Guardian: In response to an RTI filed by the group RTI Anonymous, the Ministry of Home Affairs was forced to explain why Robert Vadra was being exempted from security checks at airports. The MHA said that it had recommended exempting Vadra from pre-embarkation security checks at all civilian airports because of his marriage to Priyanka Vadra, who is a special protection group “protectee”. The ministry said that this was done in consultation with the Central security agencies and clarified that the exemption was valid only when he travelled with his wife. The list is prepared by the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) on the basis of inputs given by the Home Ministry. In May last year, Priyanka Gandhi had written to the Special Protection Group demanding that the withdrawal of privileges be implemented immediately for her entire family. According to top Congress sources, Priyanka wrote to Prasad, stating that she, her children and her husband be treated like ordinary passengers at airports when travelling together as a family. She also stated that she had never asked for this special treatment, and that it was extended by the SPG on operational grounds. “I would like to bring to your notice that his (Vadra) inclusion on that list came about at the instance of your predecessors in the SPG / Delhi Police and not upon any request by either of us who were informed after the fact. It was done ostensibly to facilitate the coordination of the two separate security agencies at the airport when we travelled together,” she wrote. Priyanka also communicated that she was unhappy that this issue had been “politicised needlessly”.