Rajya Sabha secretariat seeks action against airport for VIP lounge access

NEW DELHI: The Rajya Sabha Secretariat has sought “appropriate action” against Indira Gandhi International Airport authorities for not allowing former member Pramod Kureel of the Bahujan Samaj Party access to the VIP lounge at Terminal 3 of the airport, although rules do not allow former Members of Parliament access to VIP lounges at airports across the country.

“I am directed to request you to take appropriate action as deemed fit ,” the Rajya Sabha secretariat said in a letter written to Arun Kumar, additional secretary in the aviation ministry, on December 18, four days after Kureel sent an email to the Rajya Sabha chairman.

“I am further directed to request you to apprise directly Shree Pramod Kureel, ex-MP (RS) of the action taken in the regard, under intimation to this secretariat.” In the email, Kureel had intimated the Rajya Sabha chairman about the “insult meted out to him by the staff at VIP lounge at IGI airport (T3)”, according to the letter, a copy of which was seen by ET.


Permission to access reserved or VIP lounges at airports comes under the purview of the civil aviation ministry, which does not allow former MPs access to such lounges at airports. However, the ministry keeps reviewing the list to add or remove people or categories of people, said officials.

In September last year, the name of Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, who was convicted for raping two female followers, was removed from the list. Moreover, there is a “no frisk” list that allows these categories to fly without being frisked at airports across the country.

This list is cleared by the home ministry and the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security. This list is also reviewed from time to time and the NDA government had removed the name of Robert Vadra, husband of Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s sister, Priyanka, from the list. Vadra was the only private person on the list that includes the Dalai Lama.