Nitin Gadkari shuns an ‘unaccountable ceremony’

Mumbai/Nagpur: There was a big fat wedding in Nagpur last week — that of Union minister Nitin Gadkari’s daughter Ketki to Aditya Kaskhedikar — but unlike the Reddy wedding that took place in Karnataka recently, there was not much fuss made about the expenditure involved for this one.

Sources in the income tax department claimed that they would later check the returns that would be filed, so as to ascertain if there was any discrepancy or not. However, while certain sections of the media had reported that 50 charter planes were used to ferry visitors, only 10 chartered flights ultimately landed in Nagpur for the high-profile wedding, according to an Air Traffic Control (ATC) official.

The event remained in discussion for a week in the backdrop of demonetisation, which has hit families arranging marriages hard, since it is now difficult to draw sufficient funds for lavish festivities. Cautious after Janardhan Reddy, a BJP leader from Karnataka, came in for criticism for his daughter's opulent wedding, Mr Gadkari, nonetheless, had arranged at least six different programmes for Ketki’s big day. A pre-wedding reception was conducted in Nagpur, at Ishwar Deshmukh Sabhagruha, on November 27, where 10 BJP officials from every booth were invited. About 5,000 people eventually attended the programme.

In another pre-wedding event, in his original village Dhapewada on December 3, Mr Gadkari called people from Nagpur’s rural areas. The actual marriage took place the next day at Empress Palace, for which only VVIPs like Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, MNS chief Raj Thackeray, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, Congress leader Narayan Rane, SP leader Amar Singh, yoga guru Ramdev and Union minister Rajnath Singh were present.

On December 6, Aditya, the groom, had kept a separate reception for his invitees at Centre Point hotel in Nagpur. On December 7, another reception was held at Ishwar Deshmukh Sabhagruha which officials and general invitees attended. About 25 different food items were on the menu for this reception, although there were no sweet dishes, reportedly due to former Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalalithaa’s demise on December 5.

The last ceremony was conducted on December 8 at Delhi, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi was also present. It is said that about 4,000-5,000 people attended every wedding ceremony, with a few crores of rupees being spent in total, although the exact cost of the marriage was kept under wraps.

Mr Gadkari’s office, however, denied reports that 50 chartered flights had been arranged for the VVIP guests. A senior Nagpur ATC official said on the condition of anonymity, “Around 10 chartered flights did land in Nagpur, but we cannot ascertain whether they were for the marriage or for some other reason.”

A senior income tax official, when asked whether the department was keeping an eye on the amount spent for the wedding, denied that the same had been done, but claimed that the I-T returns would be scrutinised, adding that this is common procedure.