We have been hearing with much fanfare that Congress president Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra's name will no longer appear on the no-frisking list that appears in Indian airports, a monument to India's feudalistic VIP culture.
Vadra was the only person to be on that list by name, making the privilege of marrying into the Nehru-Gandhi family conspicuous by display in all of India's civilian airports. All the other exemptions were by office--Prime Minister of India, High Court Chief Justices, and so on.
Vadra was exempt from security pat-downs while he travelled with any of his family members.
After the government responded by taking his name off the list, Vadra posted on his social networking page that he welcomed the move. "I appreciate that my name will not appear in the VVIP list anymore. I hope this is a dead issue now and will not be used against me. My Best wishes."
But a new notification issued just a day prior to that means effectively nothing will change for Mr Vadra.
The Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) issued a notification on September 15, saying all accompanying spouses of the VVIPs shall be “exempted from pre-embarkation checks at all civil airports in the country”, reported The Hindustan Times.
So despite all the noise, the only difference for Vadra is this--if he is travelling with Rahul Gandhi or Sonia Gandhi without Priyanka Gandhi present, he will get frisked. Else, it's business as usual.
18/09/15 Indrani Basu/HuffPost
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Vadra was the only person to be on that list by name, making the privilege of marrying into the Nehru-Gandhi family conspicuous by display in all of India's civilian airports. All the other exemptions were by office--Prime Minister of India, High Court Chief Justices, and so on.
Vadra was exempt from security pat-downs while he travelled with any of his family members.
After the government responded by taking his name off the list, Vadra posted on his social networking page that he welcomed the move. "I appreciate that my name will not appear in the VVIP list anymore. I hope this is a dead issue now and will not be used against me. My Best wishes."
But a new notification issued just a day prior to that means effectively nothing will change for Mr Vadra.
The Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) issued a notification on September 15, saying all accompanying spouses of the VVIPs shall be “exempted from pre-embarkation checks at all civil airports in the country”, reported The Hindustan Times.
So despite all the noise, the only difference for Vadra is this--if he is travelling with Rahul Gandhi or Sonia Gandhi without Priyanka Gandhi present, he will get frisked. Else, it's business as usual.
18/09/15 Indrani Basu/HuffPost
