Sushma Swaraj flew in chopper banned from VIP duty: MP minister in House

The facts emerged during a debate on a motion in the MP Assembly moved by MLA Rajvardhan Singh recently. Law and Aviation Minister P C Sharma was responding to the motion in the presence of Chouhan and CM Kamal Nath.

“Was the CM’s (Chouhan’s) life more important than Sushma Swaraj or other (state) ministers who used the helicopter? Is a CM the only VIP? Are Union Cabinet ministers and state Cabinet ministers not considered VIPs?” the Congress MLA had asked.

Giving details of the Union Ministry ban, Sharma replied that Swaraj, who represented Vidisha in the Lok Sabha, should not have travelled in the helicopter.

Chouhan, who also spoke on the motion, recalled that former Andhra Pradesh CM Y S Rajasekhara Reddy had died in a helicopter crash, leading to the ban. He said he had tried using the Bell 407 helicopter but was not allowed, prompting his government to ground it. However, he did not reply to why Swaraj was allowed to use it. Leader of Opposition Gopal Bhargava recalled the crashes that killed YRS Reddy and Sanjay Gandhi but added that the matter should not be discussed openly as it pertains to VIP security.

On July 17, the Congress government had decided to sell the Bell-407 helicopter and its spares to Messrs Oxford Enterprises Pvt Limited, Pune, for a price of Rs 6 crore. The Cabinet also decided to sell another helicopter, a Bell-430, and its spares to Messrs Thambi Aviation Pvt Ltd, Kerala, which offered Rs 2.80 crore for it.

The Cabinet decision was followed by allegations that the Congress government was selling the machines because it wants to hire planes and helicopters from an aviation company owned by CM Kamal Nath.

The Aviation minister told the Assembly that the MP government has a KingAir B-200 and a Eurocopter EC 155 B. The B-200 remained grounded for 505 days and the EC 155 B remained grounded for 231 days between 2014 and 2018. During the same period, the BJP government spent Rs 42.08 crore on hiring planes and helicopters from private companies.

The MLA who raised the motion asked why the B-407 was not sold off if it was not fit for VIP duty? He said had it been sold, the government could have made about Rs 11 crore. Referring to the previous government’s Rs 42.08 crore expenditure on hiring planes and helicopters in five years, he said the government could have bought a new plane for Rs 50 crore.