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Centre Wants Bully MP Ravindra Gaikwad To Apologise As Shiv Sena Mulls Privilege Motion

Will he?
IANS

The Centre, it seems, wants bully MP Ravindra Gaikwad to apologise for his assault on a 60-year-old Air India officer last week, to save face in front of the people of the country.

While ministers and members of parliament often enjoy undisputed privilege in terms of holding up flights and traffic on the road, causing inconvenience to others, Gaikwad had perhaps dared to hit the Air India employee with impunity thinking he will get away with it.

The Telegraph quoted a senior minister as saying, "The MP bragging about assaulting the aged staffer has made matters worse for us. It has become very difficult to justify any mercy towards him. He should at least apologise before anything can be done."

While the apology doesn't seem imminent, Air India cancelled two tickets book by Gaikwad. The MP currently faces a ban from several airlines because of his misconduct and has an FIR against him.

An airline source told The Times of India, "The MP has open tickets and attempts were made to endorse them for these flights. We are ascertaining how many open tickets and frequent flyer tickets have been issued to the MP so that those could be cancelled."

Gaikwad's party, the Shiv Sena, has meanwhile come out in support despite the fact that the MP hit a senior citizen 25 times with his sandals and bragged about it on television.

Reports suggest that the party is likely to move a breach of privilege motion against Air India in Parliament if the against him ban was not lifted.

Shiv Sena MP Arvind Sawant told Mumbai Mirror, "We approached the speaker and she promised to help resolve the issue. We will wait for her decision, and for the government to act. If that doesn't happen, we will have to move a breach of privilege motion."

On Friday, Gaikwad had to take a train to Mumbai after Air India and IndiGo had cancelled his tickets. Jet Airways, IndiGo, SpiceJet and GoAir which are part of the Federation of Indian Airlines, have all banned him from flying.

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This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.