Royal prerogative

India may have abolished royal titles but the fact seems to have escaped junior Minister of Commerce and Industry Jyotiraditya Scindia, scion of the former ruling house of Gwalior. Speaking at Air India’s inaugural A-319 flight between Gwalior and Mumbai earlier this week, Scindia told the audience, “This plane could come here only because of Vayalar Raviji [current aviation minister] and the senior Maharaja [his father, the late Madhav Rao]. Vayalar Raviji is a friend of the senior Maharaja.” He omitted to mention that the “senior Maharaja” was also civil aviation minister and Congress politician and it is in that capacity that Ravi would have known him. Coincidentally, the Privy Purse was abolished in 1971, the year the junior Scindia was born.