A day after the Minister of State (Home) Kiren Rijiju was reported to have bullied common passengers forcing them to deboard the plane, the BJP has justified his action.
Opposition parties have slammed the BJP for what termed was a VVIP Racism.
Jammu and Kashmir’s deputy chief minister, Nirmal Singh said, “Mountain of a molehill is being made out of this. Rijiju ji has Z+ security, so to accommodate him passengers were deboarded. Air India did it and said it was under the rule.”
While an Air India spokesman said it has sought more details on the incident, Rijuju claimed it was not a “delay” as the departure of the flight was “preponed” due to technical reasons.
“The departure was at 1140 hrs…I don’t know…Somehow there was a rescheduling issue…It was not a delay..It was a communication gap,” Rijiju said.
Rijiju told PTI from Darjeeling that he was returning to Delhi after taking part the “Sindhu Darshan” festival on June 24 along with Jammu and Kashmir Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh in an Air India flight which was “suddenly rescheduled.”