Ravindra Gaikwad row: Shiv Sena MP set to fly Air India on Monday after state carriers revokes flying ban

Ravindra Gaikwad is all set to fly via Air India on 10 April, ANI tweeted. According to the news agency, the Shiv Sena Member of Parliament will take its first flight after Air India along with all major Indian airlines put an indefinite ban on him from flying for assaulting an Air India staffer. The ban on Gaikwad was lifted on Saturday following a direction from the Ministry of Civil Aviation.

Shiv Sena MP Ravindra Gaikwad will fly with Air India tomorrow; his first flight after flight ban on him was lifted. pic.twitter.com/oi3V6JCytM

— ANI (@ANI) April 9, 2017

Gaikwad has been at the centre of the “flying ban” controversy after he allegedly attacked and misbehaved with an Air India staffer. Gaikwad was flying on an Air India flight from Pune to Delhi, when he hit airline’s duty manager Shivkumar with his slipper several times when the latter urged him to deplane after the lawmaker refused to do so once the plane landed at Delhi airport. “The MP turned violent, broke the duty manager’s spectacles, tore his shirt and hit him with slippers several times,” airline sources said. Gaikwad, carrying a business class ticket, insisted on taking the airline’s early morning flight AI-852 from Pune to Delhi, which is an all-economy class. This led to an argument with the airline employees in Pune and an assault on the manager by the MP when the aircraft landed in Delhi. The Shiv Sena leader was barred from flying via the state carrier following the incident. The airline had also cancelled his return ticket to Pune from Delhi. And along with Air India other major Indian airlines had barred him from flying and sought an apology from Gaikwad. Gaikwad, however, refused to apologise and even gave interviews saying, saying “kaahe ka pashchaataap (what is there to repent)?” “I will not apologise…he (AI Manager Sukumar) should come and apologise… then we will see. A 60-year-old man should also know how to behave,” he had said after the incident. The first-time lawmaker also said he had made the Parliament “proud” when asked if his act has brought shame to the temple of democracy. After the airlines refused to buzz, Shiv Sena went on to obstruct the functioning of Parliament and even threatened Minister of Civil Aviation Ashok Gajapathi Raju. The party had also announced that it would boycott the NDA meeting if the ban was not lifted by 10 April.