After Air India fracas, Ravindra Gaikwad barred from flying, but Shiv Sena MP will not say sorry

Shiv Sena MP Ravindra Gaikwad was barred from flying by four private Indian carriers after his brazen assault on an Air India officer. The Federation of Indian Airlines, which has Jet Airways, IndiGo, SpiceJet and GoAir as its members, has taken a “strong view of the incident and accordingly taken a decision to bar Gaikwad from flying”, an FIA source said, reported PTI. [caption id=“attachment_3349500” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Shiv Sena MP Ravindra Vishwanath Gaikwad. Image courtesy: National Portal of India[/caption] Air India on Friday blacklisted “unruly” Gaikwad who admitted to assaulting an airline staffer “25 times” with his shoes and attempted to throw him out of the aircraft on Thursday. An Air India official confirmed to IANS that the order “blacklisting him with immediate effect” has been issued, but the period and other details are not yet available. A common practice among many international and some Indian private airlines for safety and security reasons, this is the first time that the national carrier has introduced such a ‘blacklist’ of rowdy passengers. Meanwhile, Gaikwad maintained his stance and refused to apologise for the incident.

I will not apologize, why should I? First ask him(victim) to apologize then we will see: Ravindra Gaikwad,Shiv Sena MP pic.twitter.com/tbB0aQ5IUk

— ANI (@ANI) March 24, 2017

Ironically, the first law-breaker who figures on the Air India ‘blacklist’ happens to be a law-maker from Maharashtra, a former teacher with two terms as a legislator and now a first-time MP from Osmanabad district. Meanwhile, Sukumar, the Air India staff member who was assaulted by the Shiv Sena MP, said he was not scared.

I am not scared at all,have been doing public dealing. Many people get irritated on such issues: Sukumar, AI staff assaulted by Shiv Sena MP pic.twitter.com/HcMCzdPXIW

— ANI (@ANI) March 24, 2017

Late Thursday, the Air India said it was “examining the possibility of creating a ’no-fly’ list of unruly passengers on the lines of other airlines,” after lodging two separate FIRs against Gaikwad - for assaulting a shift manager and delaying a scheduled flight to Goa. On his part, Gaikwad has shot off complaints to Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju and Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan demanding an enquiry into the incident. Meanwhile, Shiv Sena President Uddhav Thackeray has sought an explanation from Gaikwad for his behaviour which has caused embarrassment in ruling circles as the party is an ally both at the Centre and in Maharashtra. Gaikwad’s grouse stemmed from the fact that he was forced to travel economy class on a Pune-New Delhi flight AI-852 though he held an open business class ticket He later refused to disembark from the flight at New Delhi airport for an hour, hurled abuses, indulged in violent and unruly behaviour and even tried to physically fling out the staffer from the aircraft. With inputs from IANS