The Congress on Thursday said that making Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi “sit in the fifth row” at the Independence Day celebrations at the Red Fort showed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘pettiness’ and lack of respect for democratic traditions. The opposition party’s attack came after sources involved in organising the event said all seating arrangements were done “as per the table of precedence”. They said it was decided this year that ‘Paris Olympics medal winners’ would be honoured as special guests at the Independence Day celebrations.
Congress general secretary (organisation) KC Venugopal said, “Modi ji, it’s about time you wake up to the new reality post-June 4th. The arrogance with which you relegated Lok Sabha LoP Rahul Gandhi ji to the last rows during the Independence Day ceremony shows that you have not learned your lesson.” “The defence ministry’s feeble explanation that it was out of ‘respect for Olympians’ doesn’t cut much ice. While Olympians deserve every bit of respect, I wonder how Cabinet ministers like Amit Shah or Nirmala Sitharaman ji get front row seats ahead of them,” he said.
According to protocol, the Leader of Opposition (LoP) of both Houses must also be seated in the front row but the seats for Gandhi and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge were in the fifth row, he said. “This was not only an insult to the post of LoP or Rahul ji; it was an insult to the people of India, whose voice Rahul ji represents in Parliament. It’s amazing how uncomfortable the truth can make some people — so much so that they’d rather rearrange the seating than face it,” Venugopal said in a post on X. Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate claimed that Modi was a person with a “petty mindset” and he kept giving proof of that himself. “It is futile to expect big things from small-minded people. Narendra Modi certainly showed his frustration by making Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi sit in the fifth row during the Independence Day celebrations but this does not make any difference to Rahul Gandhi and he will keep raising issues of the people as he has been doing,” she said in a video statement on X. “However, it shows that you and your government do not have any respect for democracy, democratic traditions and the Leader of Opposition,” he said.