Rijiju flight controversy: Samajwadi Party seeks reply from 'pradhan sevak' PM

The Samajwadi Party on Thursday called for an end to the VVIP culture following the recent controversy surrounding Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju and said Prime Minister Narendra Modi who claims to be the country's 'pradhan sevak' must answer as to how his own Cabinet colleagues are flouting the norms.

Samajwadi Party leader Gaurav Bhatia said it is extremely unfortunate that a minister of the country causes inconvenience to hundreds of passengers for no fault of theirs.

"They reached the airport on time. They boarded the flight but then had to wait because of one person who thinks he is above the law and he is a VVIP. We have to fight this VVIP culture and it is becoming more serious as it has found precedence now within the BJP where within two days we have seen two incidents: one that of Kiren Rijiju and another that of Devendra Fadnavis where flights were held up and grave inconvenience was caused to the common man," Bhatia told ANI.

"The Prime Minister of the country says that he is the 'pradhan sevak'. I want to ask the Pradhan Sevak as to how is it that his own colleagues are flouting norms, are thinking that they are above law and feel that they are kings in the country. If the common man can give you power and make your government, the common man can also hit back and fight against your VVIP nature and bring you back on the ground. So beware," he added.

Rijiju, who had last week gone to Leh by a Border Security Force (BSF) helicopter to attend the Sindhu Darshan function, reportedly caused the delay of an Air India flight and made three passengers de-board the flight.

Rijiju was accompanied by Jammu and Kashmir Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh and they were to fly to Delhi from Leh on June 24, when the reported incident took place.

However, the Minister has denied all the allegations and said he was not aware that three passengers were de-boarded.

According to reports, the helicopter in which Rijju was to return could not take off due to bad weather and last-minute-arrangements were made to fly him and the Deputy Chief Minister by Air India flight AI 446.