Congress alleged an attempt to detain Pawan Khera at the Delhi airport and protested on the tarmac.
New Delhi:
Congress leader Pawan Khera was arrested at the Delhi airport today, after being taken off a flight to Chhattisgarh capital Raipur, over an alleged insult to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Nearly 50 Congress leaders launched a rare protest on the tarmac, refusing to let the flight leave. The opposition party also approached the Supreme Court against the arrest.
Pawan Khera, a senior Congress spokesperson, was forced to exit the IndiGo flight after he boarded it as part of a Congress group heading to Raipur for a meeting of the All India Congress Committee (AICC).
Pawan Khera was arrested by the Assam Police, who arrived at the airport with an FIR or First Information Report. “It’s a long battle and I’m ready to fight,” he said as he was whisked away by the police.
Several Congress leaders got off the plane in protest, staging a sit-in on the Delhi airport tarmac.
IndiGo said in a statement: “A passenger was deplaned by the police at the Delhi airport from Raipur-bound flight 6E 204. Some other passengers have also decided to deboard on their own accord. We are following the advice of the concerned authorities. The flight is delayed as of now and we regret the inconvenience caused to other passengers.”
Mr Khera said he was first told that there was a problem with his baggage. “They told me you can’t fly. Then they said the DCP (Deputy Commissioner of Police) will meet you. I have been waiting for a long time,” he said.
Mr Khera was named in the FIR on the basis of a BJP leader’s complaint in Assam.
At a recent press conference, Mr Khera flubbed PM Modi’s name while demanding a joint parliamentary probe into the Adani-Hindenburg row. “If Narasimha Rao could form a JPC (Joint Parliamentary Committee), if Atal Bihari Vajpayee could form a JPC, then what problem does Narendra Gautam Das…sorry Damodardas…Modi have?” he said, appearing to confirm the middle name with a colleague.
The BJP insists that Mr Khera’s fumble was deliberate.
Make no mistake- pathetic remarks by courtier Pawan Khera on PM’s father have blessings of the top levels of Congress, which is full of entitlement and disdain against a person of humble origins being PM. India will not forget or forgive these horrible remarks of Congressmen.
– Himanta Biswa Sarma (@himantabiswa) February 20, 2023
“Make no mistake- pathetic remarks by courtier Pawan Khera on PM’s father have blessings of the top levels of Congress, which is full of entitlement and disdain against a person of humble origins being PM. India will not forget or forgive these horrible remarks of Congressmen,” Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had said.
The Congress said the BJP is acting out of fear and wants to block the party’s plenary session because of the “successful Bharat Jodo Yatra of Rahul Gandhi”. Last week, the Enforcement Directorate carried out searches on Congress MLAs in Chhattisgarh over allegations of money-laundering.
“This is nothing but a rattled government and its high-handedness,” Congress’s Supriya Srinate told NDTV.
