Sena MPs seek lifting ban on Gaikwad for ongoing session

The Shiv Sena today urged Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan to ask domestic airlines to withdraw the flying ban imposed on its MP Ravindra Gaikwad for the ongoing budget session.
The party said, Gaikwad is also likely to meet the Speaker in a couple of days.
"We met the Speaker today and requested her to instruct concerned authorities to withdraw the travel ban imposed on Gaikwad for the ongoing session," said Rahul Shewale, party MP from South Central Mumbai.
He hoped the matter is resolved before the next session and demanded that, in the interim, the MP from Osmanabad in Maharashtra who is at the centre of a row for assaulting an Air India employee, is allowed to fly during the current session of Parliament.

Vinayak Raut, party MP from Sindhudurg-Ratnagiri, said Gaikwad is a public representative and by banning him from flying, the airlines are hampering his legislative work.
"It is also an injustice to people of his constituency. It is also improper to impose a blanket ban on anyone," Raut, who was the part of the delegation, said.

Sanjay Raut, Shiv Sena Rajya Sabha member, said airline companies are behaving like "goons" by letting terrorists take their flight but imposing restrictions on the common man.
"What has he (Gaikwad) done? The behaviour of the airline companies is like mafia and goons.
"An FIR has been lodged against the MP. The MP has also lodged an FIR. The investigation is going on," Raut said, noting no action should have been taken against Gaikwad before investigation was complete.

"And moreover, the FIR has been lodged and investigation is not yet complete. Who has done what will be clear only after investigation is complete. In this country, till now, dictatorship has not yet started. If they are doing it under pressure from someone, this pressure will also not work for long," he said without elaborating on who could possibly be exerting pressure on the air operators.
Asked whether there should be a fly ban on Gaikwad, he said, "There should not be a fly ban on him. Is he a terrorist? Terrorists, underworld dons, corrupt people can fly in your airlines, but an MP, who is a common man, he would not fly.