After the accusations made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi that Congress leaders held a “secret meeting” with some Pakistani officials a few days ago, it has now come to light that the seaplane used by him on Tuesday, 12 December, to take off from the Sabarmati riverfront in Ahmedabad, was “near Karachi” on 3 December before it flew into Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji airport at 7:45 pm that evening.
Other than the flight path and origins of the plane, there are few other questions regarding the seaplane that the government will have to answer like were security norms breached when the particular aircraft was requisitioned?
The Kodiak 100 aircraft belongs to Utah-based Quest Aircraft Company which was “founded in the Pacific Northwest”. The company, in turn is operated by a Japanese plane-maker, even as the aircraft is currently owned by the Bank of Utah. The registration number of the aircraft – N181KQ – indicates it is registered in the US.
Small aircraft industry sources revealed that only the ferrying between Ahmedabad and Dharoi and back would have cost the BJP (or the government?) $70,000 (around Rs 42 lakh). But what is even more shocking is that the Prime Minister’s security establishment allowed Modi to board a single-engine aircraft, which in itself is a huge security breach.
IAF sources said that most helicopters used by the Prime Minister are twin-engine, besides being armoured plated, and they could have been used instead of the Kodiak 100.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, frantically campaigning for BJP, on Tuesday morning took off from Sabarmati river in Ahmedabad in the seaplane for Dharoi Dam about 180 km away, from where PM Modi visited the famous Ambaji temple in Mehsana. He flew back to Ahmedabad from the same route.Using the seaplane was plan-B for the BJP after the roadshow was canceled.
Apart from the election campaign, the other main motive for this seaplane campaigning is to capture the attention of the Gujaratis towards the development work done by the BJP and also giving a befitting reply to the Congress, who is running the entire campaigning on the failed Gujarat model strategy.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 4th December Monday evening announced his seaplane journey on Twitter. Taking a dig at the Congress for continuously targetting the BJP on the failed Gujarat model he said that “With air, roads & rail connectivity, our Government is making efforts for harnessing waterways. All this is for 125 crore Indians. The transformation across Gujarat is for everyone to see. Sadly, Congress’ notion of development is making a quick buck and that is why they are unable to see any change for the better.”
Now, it seems that the trick to attract voters, brought adverse consequences for Modi and now he will have to answer the questions raised by using a seaplane from Karachi(Pakistan).
Plane’s journey to India
Inquiries into this particular aircraft’s history revealed that before Karachi, it was in or near Muscat on 25 October, at Darwin which is a Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) airbase on 22 October, in Bali the same day, Norfolk Island on 20 October and at Ardmore and Auckland in New Zealand also on 20 October.