NEW DELHI (TIP): The government may have removed his name from the VVIP no-frisking list, but Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra will not be frisked by security personnel at any Indian airport while travelling with his wife Priyanka Gandhi.
Special Protection Group (SPG) protectees are exempt from pre-embarkation checks at airports, according to the latest VVIP list issued by the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) on September 15.
The BCAS order categorically states that the accompanying spouse of the VVIPs too shall be “exempted from pre-embarkation checks at all civil airports in the country”.
“The new list, like the previous one, has SPG protectees, including Priyanka Gandhi. So, while travelling with her, Vadra won’t have to queue up at airports and get frisked,” said an aviation ministry official.
“Earlier too, Vadra was exempt from checks but only while he was travelling with SPG protectees. That facility is available to him at present as well but only while travelling with his wife,” said another official.
Vadra was the only person, besides the Dalai Lama, who was mentioned by name in the previous list. The aviation ministry had written to the home and external affairs ministries on pruning the list of 31 categories of VVIPs.
The government’s order to remove Vadra’s name from the no-frisking list came two days after Vadra himself took a jibe at the Narendra Modi government for retaining his name in the VVIP list despiter making an issue out of it during the 2014 Lok Sabha election campaign.
The no-frisking privilege is granted to constitutional figures and those who have elite Special Protection Group (SPG) cover, including Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi – the two top leaders of the Congress party – and her daughter Priyanka.