New Delhi: In a rare case, the Narendra Modi government has given the international tag to the sensitive defence airport at Gujarat’s Jamnagar town for just 10 days so that guests invited to the wedding of Mukesh Ambani’s son can land close to the venue.The international tag to the Indian Air Force airport located close to the Pakistan border was given for February 25 to March 5.Billionaire businessman Ambani, a fellow Gujarati seen close to Prime Minister Modi, is hosting many guests from the global who’s who list arriving from different parts of the world to attend son Anant Ambani’s wedding to Radhika Merchant, daughter of industrialist Viren Merchant.According to airport officials, between February 28 and March 4, the Jamnagar airport is expected to receive at least 150 aircraft. “Of these, 50 are flying in directly from foreign locations. During these five days, there will be more than 300 aircraft movements at the airport,” D.K. Singh, airport director at Jamnagar, told The Hindu BusinessLine.The news report said approximately 2,000 guests are expected at the pre-wedding event in these aircraft, including guests from Mumbai and Delhi. “This is a multi-fold jump in aircraft movements for the Jamnagar airport, which, on average, handles only three scheduled and five non-scheduled aircraft daily,” it added.A report in The Hindu said, “The Union government’s Ministry of Health, Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Home Affairs have pressed in resources to set up a Custom, Immigration and Quarantine (CIQ) facility at the airport.”Especially for the wedding, the Air Force has not only permitted access of these private aircraft to its sensitive “technical” area, also, “in preparation for the massive inflow of guests, the AAI (Airports Authority of India) has expanded the size of its passenger building from 475 sq km to 900 sq m, allowing it to accommodate nearly 360 passengers during peak hours as compared to 180 earlier.”An airport official on condition of anonymity told The Hindu, “Expansion work was planned much earlier but was expedited for the (Ambani wedding) event.”While “up to three aircraft are being accommodated in the technical area at a given time”, the news report highlighted that the airport has also enhanced manpower in “every vertical”.“Thirty-five house-keeping staff have been added to the existing strength of 16; the (BJP-ruled) state (Gujarat) government has also doubled the deployment of security personnel from 35 to 70; ground handling agencies have raised the strength of their staff from 65 to 125,” underlined The Hindu.Ambani’s Reliance Industries has also been allowed to make special arrangements near the defence airport to receive the dignitaries coming for the pre-wedding event, added The Hindu Businessline report.This past November, Prime Minister Modi had appealed to rich Indians to ‘wed in India’ in his Maan Ki Baat radio speech. It is not clear yet whether that appeal coincided with the special preparations that his government was carrying out at the Jamnagar defence airport for the Ambani wedding.The Ambani scion’s engagement was held at a temple in Rajasthan on December 29. News reports had then said the wedding would take place in Jamnagar on March 1.While India’s top business daily, The Economic Times, carried an article this February 29 with the headline, “Anant-Radhika wedding will kick-off ‘wed in India’ Economy”, it is not clear yet if the Union government’s special arrangements at the Jamnagar airport was due to a new policy adopted for all to augment the ‘wed-in India’ economy mooted by Modi, or it was a one-off gesture towards the Ambani family.It may be recalled that in May 2023, South Africa was rocked by the news of a special charter flight carrying guests from India for the wedding of the son of an Indian-origin billionaire business tycoon seen close to former President Jacob Zuma, allowed by the government to land at a defence airport.The industrialists Atul, Ajay and Rajesh Guptas were one of the biggest benefactors of Zuma’s party, the African National Congress (ANC). News reports had then said the guests included Bollywood stars among others.According to a BBC report, “Police escorted the guests to the casino resort of Sun City for the wedding of 23-year-old Vega Gupta, the Gupta brothers’ niece, to Indian-born Aaskash Jahajgarhia.”With South African and international Press highlighting the ‘political scandal’, the then ruling ANC government issued a statement saying, “The African National Congress, driven by the concern for the safety and sovereignty of South Africa, shall never allow a situation where our ports of entry and National Key Points are penetrated with impunity.”South African minister in the Presidency Collins Chabane told reporters that an investigation had been ordered and it would also “unearth whether diplomatic privilege had been abused (by the Indian embassy)”.South African foreign ministry’s chief of protocol Bruce Koloane was also suspended immediately for allowing the Waterklof Air Force Base airport near Pretoria to be used by the Guptas pending the investigation.
