Government to probe foreign funding for Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party

November 11, 2013

New Delhi, Nov 11: The Centre has ordered a probe into the source of foreign funding received by Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which will make its political debut in the December 4 Delhi state election.

Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde today said, "Whatever the source of funding is, which country it is coming from, to probe this we have given it to the ministry. We had got complaints about foreign funding and we are investigating. It takes some time."

Mr Kejriwal shot back, "The Congress is scared of AAP. Let them probe us. Finish a probe in 48 hours. But let them also probe how Congress got funds worth Rs. 2000 crore. Let them also investigate the BJP's funding."

The AAP alleges that it is being targeted as opinion polls had predicted better prospects for the first-timers than earlier believed.

According to reports, Mr Kejriwal's fledgling outfit claims to have collected around Rs. 19 crore as donations from 63,000 people, ranging from rickshaw pullers, to traders, industrialists and overseas Indians.

Last month, the Delhi High Court had asked the Centre to look into the accounts of AAP and investigate their source of funding. The government had been asked to file a status report by December 10.

The court's order came on a petition by ML Sharma asking for a probe into the finances of Mr Kejriwal's party. The AAP has so far fended off criticism by saying that their donations are detailed on their website and every rupee is accounted for.

On Sunday, Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit had lashed out at Mr Kejriwal for repeatedly targeting her, with a counter-question on his funding.

"Where do you (AAP) get all the money from? You can call me a liar or I can call you a thief. But is there any proof to say that I am a liar? But there is proof to say that you are a thief," the 75-year-old Chief Minister was quoted telling PTI in an interview.

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IndiGo CEO says less than 1,000 cancellations on Dec 6; normalcy by Dec 15

News Network

December 5,2025

New Delhi, Dec 5: IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers issued a public apology this evening after more than a thousand flights were cancelled today, making it the "most severely impacted day" in terms of cancellations. The biggest airline of the country cancelled "more than half" of its daily number of flights on Friday, said Elbers. He also said that even though the crisis will persist on Saturday, the airline anticipates fewer than 1,000 flight cancellations.

"Full normalisation is expected between December 10 and 15, though IndiGo cautions that recovery will take time due to the scale of operations," the IndiGo CEO said.

IndiGo operates around 2,300 domestic and international flights daily.

Pieter Elbers, while apologising for the major inconvenience due to delays and cancellations, said the situation is a result of various causes.

The crisis at IndiGo stems from new regulations that boost pilots' weekly rest requirements by 12 hours to 48 and allow only two night-time landings per week, down from six. IndiGo has attributed the mass cancellations to "misjudgment and planning gaps".

Elbers also listed three lines of action that the airline will adopt to address the issue.

"Firstly, customer communication and addressing your needs, for this, messages have been sent on social media. And just now, a more detailed communication with information, refunds, cancellations and other customer support measures was sent," he said.

The airline has also stepped up its call centre capacity.

"Secondly, due to yesterday's situation, we had customers stranded mostly at the nation's largest airports. Our focus was for all of them to be able to travel today itself, which will be achieved. For this, we also ask customers whose flights are cancelled not to come to the airports as notifications are sent," the CEO said.

"Thirdly, cancellations were made for today to align our crew and planes to be where they need to start tomorrow morning afresh. Earlier measures of the last few days, regrettable, have proven not to be enough, but we have decided today to reboot all our systems and schedules, resulting in the highest numbers of cancellations so far, but imperative for progressive improvements starting from tomorrow," he added.

As airports witnessed chaotic scenes, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) stepped in to grant IndiGo a temporary exemption from stricter night duty rules for pilots. It also allowed substitution of leaves with a weekly rest period.

Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu has said a high-level inquiry will be ordered and accountability will be fixed.

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