New Delhi: The state banquet hosted by President Droupadi Murmu at Bharat Mandapam on Saturday night for G20 leaders triggered a political row, with both the Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha being left out from the high-profile ceremonial event.
However, former prime minister Manmohan Singh as well as chief ministers of all the states and union territories, many of whom are from opposition parties, have been invited to the presidential banquet.
Bharat Mandapam, or the International Exhibition-cum-Convention Centre (IECC) complex, in New Delhi’s Pragati Maidan is also the venue of the ongoing G20 summit.
Speaking to ThePrint, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in Lok Sabha, called it “unprecedented.” “Manmohan Singh ji is a renowned name globally and has been invited in his capacity as former PM. But this is the first time that the LoP of Lok Sabha and Mallikarjun Kharge, the LoP of Rajya Sabha have not been invited. Prime Minister Narendra Modi does not believe in democratic etiquettes…. There is a wide difference in what he preaches and practices,” Chowdhury said.
He recalled how in February 2020, when the then President Ram Nath Kovind hosted a state banquet in honour of his US counterpart Donald Trump, both the floor leaders of the principal opposition party in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha along with Manmohan Singh were invited. Ghulam Nabi Azad was the LoP in the Upper House of Parliament back then.
“However, I did not attend because our party president Sonia Gandhi was not invited to the state dinner,” Chowdhury said.
Both Manmohan Singh and Ghulam Nabi Azad had also declined the invite.
Earlier in the day, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi reacted on hearing Congress party president and Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge’s exclusion from G20 state dinner.
“They have decided not to invite the leader of opposition. It tells you that they don’t value the leader of 60 percent of India’s population. Why are they feeling the need to do that and what is the type of thinking goes behind that?” Rahul said at Brussels Press Club, in Belgium.
Rashtrapati Bhavan spokesperson Ajay Singh did not respond despite repeated attempts to contact him over phone.
Former Rashtrapati Bhavan officials told ThePrint that this will be probably the first time in recent past that floor leaders of the principal opposition party in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha have been dropped from the guest list.
Apart from state banquets hosted in honour of visiting heads of state, LoPs of both houses are also invited to the At Home reception hosted by the President after Republic Day and Independence Day.
A former Rashtrapati Bhavan official, who served during Kovind’s term as President between 2017 and 2022 said that though there was no protocol to invite LoPs for state banquets but they were generally invited.
“The protocol mandated that the Vice-President, Prime Minister, Speaker of both Houses and Chief Justice of India have to be invited. But, generally, the leader of the opposition and other prominent opposition leaders, say a former foreign minister, were also invited. The opposition parties were always represented,” the former official said. “There was a flexibility in the guest list.”
However, the former official said that Sonia Gandhi, the then Congress president, was not invited for the state banquet organised for Trump because she was not holding any official position.
“Sonia Gandhi was invited for presidential banquets earlier because former president Shankar Dayal Sharma had put her in a special category as spouse of former PM. Party presidents of opposition parties are generally not invited for state banquets hosted by the president,” the former official added.
However, things were different when Pranab Mukherjee was at the Rashtrapati Bhavan.
Venu Rajamony, former diplomat and press secretary to Mukherjee, told ThePrint that President Mukherjee was very particular that due respect should be given to Opposition leaders and there should be no complaints from them.
“Invites for presidential banquets/At Home etc would be always issued as per the Government’s official Table of Precedence. Leaders of the opposition in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha rank high in the Protocol List. Invites would automatically go to them on every important occasion,” he said.
Moreover, Mukherjee instructed that senior leader and former deputy prime minister L.K. Advani should be always accorded the highest of respect and honour even if he did not figure in the Table of Precedence, Rajamony added.
At that time in the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Rajamony said that the deputy military secretary to the President was responsible for preparing the list of invitees. Once the list was prepared, he would seek the approval of the secretary to the President. The Secretary would consult the President as and when required.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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