NEW DELHI:
Shiv Sena raised the ante in Lok Sabha on the flying ban on
Ravindra Gaikwad, disrupting proceedings and minister for heavy industries and public enterprises
Anant Geete
heckling civil aviation minister
Gajapati Raju
, before cooling down by evening when Gaikwad apologised for his behaviour on an
Air India flight.
The situation turned ugly before it was defused when senior Cabinet ministers intervened and escorted both the ministers away from the House in the nick of time. Soon after Gaikwad spoke out against the flying ban slapped on him in the wake of his assault on an Air India staffer, Geete rallied behind him and protested loudly.
Geete demanded that the culpable homicide charge invoked against Gaikwad be withdrawn by Delhi Police and the "one-sided" decision of the civil aviation ministry to debar him from flights be reversed.
As Geete came too close for Raju's comfort, ministers sensed trouble and rushed to defuse the situation lest the exchange turn physical. Parliamentary affairs minister
Ananth Kumar
and MoS S S Ahluwalia formed a human wall between Sena MPs and Raju, even as home minister
Rajnath Singh persuaded Geete to calm down.
The provocation seemed to be Raju's indifference to the Sena demand. Raju had earlier said there could not be different standards for MPs.