Glad that frisking exemption is being removed: Robert Vadra

New Delhi: Robert Vadra on Saturday said that he is glad that officials removed his name from the list of VIP’s for frisking exemption in airports.

"I am glad that this formality is going to be removed," Robert Vadra said reacting to a report that he could be dropped from the list of people exempted from frisking and security checks at airports if Government approves an aviation ministry proposal.

"Read once again in the newspapers today, the removal of my Name, from a list of "exempted People", about the no frisking/security checks at Airports in India. I am glad that this formality is going to be removed, as this was created without my consent, by the security agencies, only to be followed when I would be traveling with an SPG protectees. My existing security personnel are not allowed inside airports,"  Vadra, son-in law of Congress President Sonia Gandhi said on Facebook.

He said, "Since not protected by the SPG, thus my children and I have always travelled like ordinary passengers, following all rules and norms of security checks, from removing of coats, belts, clearing bags, etc., like we would follow at any airport, world over.

"Cameras at every airport, are proof to the information given above and many passengers have mentioned this (on Twitter) contradicting the so called privilege that I claim to use."

Vadra said that he hopes that this will put at rest "all the battering that I receive from all modes of the media".

A report had it that if the government accepts a proposal of the aviation ministry, which may well be the first-ever attempt at curbing VIP culture, then a number of people right now exempted from frisking and checking at airports in India, can lose the privilege.

The report had it that those being removed from this list could include Union Ministers of State, former Vice Presidents, Deputy Chief Ministers, Cabinet Secretary and a larger number of others VIPs including Vadra.

The issue of exemption of Vadra from frisking and checking at airport has been raised many times.

In May last year, Priyanka Gandhi had asked the SPG to withdraw the exemption given to her and her family from normal security checks in the airports, a plea that had come in the wake of reports that government was considering cancellation of such a facility to her husband Robert Vadra.

In a letter to the then SPG chief Durga Prasad, she had referred to media reports of possible removal of her husband Robert Vadra's name from the list of security protectees exempt from security checks at the airport.

Priyanka had then said that Vadra's inclusion on that list came about at the instance of previous SPG chiefs and Delhi Police and not upon any request by "either of us who were informed after the fact".