Firstpost:
New delhi: Monday, 23 February 2015.
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.
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”.
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