Unlike last year, no NDA government minister turned up at the Iftar hosted by President Pranab Mukherjee at the Rashtrapati Bhavan on Friday.
In 2016, among the dignitaries who attended the event, included Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Vijay Goel, Mahesh Sharma and others.
CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury told The Indian Express:
There was not a single minister, not a single government representative, and not a single BJP leader. In all these years, I have never been to an Iftar hosted by the President where there has been no representative of the Government of India.
President Pranab Mukherjee greets guests at Rashtrapati Bhavan.
(Photo Courtesy: @RashtrapatiBhvn/Twitter)
The report further said that the Rashtrapati Bhavan had made seating arrangements with keeping the ministers in mind.
National Commission for Minorities chairman Ghayorul Hasan Rizvi, who is affiliated with the BJP, was present, but avoided contact with other guests like Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad, etc.
Naqvi, when asked about the reason for not showing up, told the IE:
I was about to go, but exactly at that time, a CCPA meeting was convened. It was an urgent meeting that could not be missed.
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