Minister of State for External Affairs Anand Sharma who created a ruckus at the Indira Gandhi International Airport a few days back when told that he would have to go through security checks, quietly went through all security checks when he was on his way to Washington, this morning.

Airport officials said he was on his way to Washington via Munich on a Lufthansa flight when he was asked to cooperate with the security checks. “He was frisked like any other passenger and his passport and other documents were also verified,” said an official.

On the earlier occasion, Sharma, who was to take an Air-India flight to London-New York on April 20, had called up CISF DG R K Das when he was asked to go through the security checks.

Das had in turn written a letter to Cabinet Secretariat, Home Ministry and Civil Aviation Ministry detailing the sequence of events and asking the authorities to “suitably inform” the minister that he did not fall in any of the categories accorded ceremonial facilities and exemption from pre-embarkation checks.

The incident sparked off a row following which the government is learnt to be exploring the possibility of expanding the list of VIPs exempted from pre-embarkation checks to now include Ministers of State. At the moment, there are 23 categories of people who are exempt from any security checks.