There simply has to be more in this than meets the eye. A "Gear Down Ferry" is really not a difficult exercise provided that the MEL/CDL allows such a procedure.
From the flight crew point of view it is quite an interesting exercise (which I have done) and the main consideration is quite simply being able to get enough fuel on board to complete the exercise.
Apart from that, there is going to be a little bit more vibration than normal and the flight is going to take place at a much lower altitude than normal.
To get things into perspective, you could fly the DC-10 with the gear down at 300 knots (IAS).
I think Air India politics are heavily involved in this story.