Uproar over West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee flight, Twitter

New Delhi: The delayed landing of West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s flight in Kolkata irked the Trinamul Congress which alleged that it was a conspiracy and a threat to her life. The party brought the Parliament proceedings to a halt with loud protests in both Houses even as the Centre denied any conspiracy and said that aviation regulator DGCA had already ordered an inquiry. The other issue that created a furore in the House was the hacking of Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi’s Twitter handle. A day after the hacking of Mr Gandhi’s Twitter account, the official Twitter handle of the Congress Party as well as the handles of several Congress communications departments were also hacked.  

On the issue of Ms Banerjee’s flight, the DGCA said that as many as three flights, including one carrying the West Bengal CM, had reported low fuel on Wednesday at the same time. Trinamul Congress’ contention is that the flight had to hover over Kolkata for over 30 to 40 minutes, despite reporting low fuel. In both Houses of Parliament, the TMC MPs were joined by the Opposition alleging a conspiracy behind the incident.

Union Civil Aviation minister Ashok Gajapati Raju said it was incorrect to say that the flight was hovering over Kolkata for 30 to 40 minutes. “The flight was hovering for only around 13 minutes. The DGCA has ordered an inquiry on how all the three flights were flying with low fuel.” The government has also assured strict action if there was any violation.

Flight operator IndiGo said its flight carrying the TMC leader was delayed due to congestion over Kolkata before making a normal landing. They maintain that it had adequate fuel.

In a statement, IndiGo said the flight 6E 342 with 174 passengers on board made a “normal landing” at Kolkata airport and that its captain did not declare a fuel priority or an emergency, though there was some misunderstanding between the Air Traffic Controller and the pilot.

According to IndiGo, there was a misinterpretation of information by the ATC controller, which led the ATC to instruct fire engines and ambulances to be stationed at the airport.

“It is turning out to be more and more suspicious because this kind of an ultra-authoritarianism is happening in many, many spheres,” Trinamul Congress MP Derek O’ Brien said, raising the issue in  Rajya Sabha.

Pointing out that the plane was in air for “a considerable amount of time” despite the pilot reporting that the plane was low on fuel, Mr O’Brien said, “I am not making any insinuation. Today, it is one Opposition leader. Is it a coincidence that this Opposition leader today is at the forefront? There are other Opposition leaders. There is Behenji (Mayawati) here, there is Akhilesh Yadavji, there are other leaders from the Congress, the JD(U), the AIADMK..Tomorrow, it can be anyone else,” he said.

The issue was raised was many other Opposition leaders, including leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad, Mayawati and JD(U)’s Sharad Yadav. They described the incident as “a very serious matter” and demanded an inquiry into it.

The government on its part rejected the conspiracy theory and asserted that the safety of all lives, who are in the Indian airspace, is the government’s priority and it is committed to it.

Minister of state for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha also maintained that at “no point was anybody in any risk or in any danger” as all safety procedures were followed. He also assured that the aircraft instrumentation would also be checked to find out how much fuel there was when the flight took off.

TMC vice-president Mukul Roy has dashed off a letter to Mr Raju demanding a thorough inquiry.

In the Lok Sabha, TMC leader Sudip Bandopadhyay said the government should rise to the occasion and find out whether there was a conspiracy. He was supported by Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge, who said that Ms Banerjee had been travelling to various parts of the country protesting against government’s move to ban Rs 500 and 1,000 notes causing hardships to common people. “Her life is in danger and ATC should have allowed her flight to land first. The VVIP flight should have been allowed to land on priority.”

Attacking the government on the issue of the Twitter hacking, Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said: “It has been 24 hours now…what action has the government taken? In fact more of our accounts have been hacked.”

Congress MP Digvijaya Singh went one step ahead and insinuated that “followers of the government” were behind the hacking of the Twitter handles. He said, “We suspect some of the government’s followers have hacked the official account of Congress. Why are only Congress’ accounts being hacked, why not BJP’s? Rahul Gandhi’s account is being hacked, why not that of Narendra Modi or Amit Shah? This should be probed.”

The BJP, meanwhile, rubbished the allegations and said this showed the Opposition party’s mental bankruptcy as it blames the saffron outfit for everything going against it. “We absolutely reject the charge. It only shows Congress’ bankruptcy that it blames BJP for everything. When court asked their leaders to appear in National Herald case, it blamed BJP. When summons were issued later, it still blamed BJP. Now it is blaming BJP for something completely unrelated to the party,” BJP national secretary Shrikant Sharma said.

As a result of the hacking, Congress has deactivated about 150-200 of its accounts temporarily. “The Indian National Congress’ internal e-mail server is under a sustained hacking attack because of which some of our Twitter accounts were compromised. Twitter has restored access for some of them and is working with us in keeping the accounts safe. We are taking necessary measures to stop this hack in the earnest,” he said.

While the Rajya Sabha was adjourned thrice, the Lok Sabha Speaker adjourned the House for the day at 12.30 PM.