NewDelhi: On the occasion of the 69th Republic Day, President Ram Nath Kovind hosted the traditional ‘At Home’ reception on the lawns of Rashtrapati Bhawan in Delhi on Friday.
Though many dignitaries were invited for the ‘At Home’ reception, what actually caught everyone’s attention was a warm meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress president Rahul Gandhi.
At the gathering, the PM also had the chance to meet former prime minister Manmohan Singh.
Among others who graced the occasion were Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, senior BJP leader LK Advani and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
Leaders of 10 ASEAN countries – Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Myanmar (Burma), Cambodia, Laos and Brunei – who graced the Republic Day parade as chief guests for the first time, were also hosted by the President.
The Modi-Rahul meeting grabbed attention in the wake of BJP government’s criticism byCongress for not allotting a front row seat to its president, who was spotted sitting in the sixth row during
the Republic day celebrations here in the morning.
Rahul Gandhi was seen sitting and chatting with senior Congressman and Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Ghulam Nabi Azad during the event.
Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala later tweeted about Rahul’s poor seating arrangement by the BJP disposition and also posted a screengrab from Doordarshan to highlight the case.
”Its hardly easy to spot the new Congress chief in the picture,” he tweeted.
is party colleagues too said that Congress president had always been seated in the front row since Independence.
The party also complained about the seating arrangement stating that the Narendra Modi government was resorting to “cheap politics”.
Bureau Report
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