{"id":304186,"date":"2017-03-23T15:31:18","date_gmt":"2017-03-23T15:31:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=304186"},"modified":"2017-03-23T15:31:18","modified_gmt":"2017-03-23T15:31:18","slug":"india-mp-boasts-of-beating-air-steward-on-flight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=304186","title":{"rendered":"India MP boasts of beating air steward on flight"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"story-body__introduction\">An Indian MP beat an airline employee repeatedly with a slipper after being unable to get a business class seat on an Air India flight.<\/p>\n<p>Ravindra Gaikwad later told Indian reporters he had &#8220;hit him 25 times with my sandal&#8221; for &#8220;arrogance&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>The MP had been told he could not fly business class because it was an all-economy flight, reports say.<\/p>\n<p>Air India filed a police complaint and said it was considering a &#8220;no-fly&#8221; list for unruly passengers.<\/p>\n<p>The MP told media: &#8220;I am not a BJP MP. I am a Shiv Sena MP and will not tolerate any insult. Let the employee complain. I will complain to the Speaker and other authorities.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/624\/cpsprodpb\/F7EC\/production\/_95286436_ravindragayakwad-23-1490265447.jpg\" alt=\"Picture of MP Ravinda Gaikwad from government website\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The airline staff member told <a class=\"story-body__link-external\" href=\"http:\/\/www.aninews.in\/newsdetail-Mg\/MzA1NTIz\/civil-aviation-minister-condemns-physical-assault-on-ai-staff.html\">Asian News International<\/a> that the MP had broken his glasses in the attack.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;When I told him what he was asking wasn&#8217;t possible, he became abusive and started using foul language,&#8221; he said. &#8220;God save our country if this is the culture and behaviour of our MPs.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The story was the top trending topic on twitter in India on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/624\/cpsprodpb\/11EFC\/production\/_95286437_tweet1.jpg\" alt=\"Excellent standing up for their staff by Air India. Now, follow this through by making sure this thug never flies on Air India\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/624\/cpsprodpb\/1460C\/production\/_95286438_tweet3.jpg\" alt=\"Shiv Sena MP beats up a 60 yr old Air India staffer. MP wanted business class in a plane that does not have one.Very despicable.#GoonGaikwad\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Ashok Ganapathi Raju, the civil aviation minister, told reporters at parliament, &#8220;No citizen will behave like this. Physical assault won&#8217;t be encouraged and will always be condemned.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Last year an Indian MP was arrested for alleging slapping an airline official at an airport in Andhra Pradesh after being told he could not board a flight with his family after the gate had closed.<\/p>\n<p>The Shiv Sena party is a junior coalition partner in the Maharashtra state government, which is ruled by India&#8217;s governing BJP.<\/p>\n<p>Over time, it has acquired a reputation for promoting religious and ethnic chauvinism and has resorted to physical attacks against those its members and supporters oppose.<\/p>\n<p>In 2015, Shiv Sena activists doused the head of an Indian think-tank in black ink in protest at his support for the launch of a book by a former Pakistani foreign minister.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;<\/p>\n<p>Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An Indian MP beat an airline employee repeatedly with a slipper after being unable to get a business class seat on an Air India flight. Ravindra Gaikwad later told Indian reporters he had &#8220;hit him 25 times with my sandal&#8221; for &#8220;arrogance&#8221;. The MP had been told he could not fly business class because it [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[107],"tags":[5410,5411,5412],"class_list":["post-304186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-international","tag-bjp","tag-india-air","tag-mp-beats-air-staff"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=304186"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304186\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=304186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=304186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=304186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}