Petty Congressmen

When President Pratibha Patil was in Ahmedabad, Dinshaw Patel, the Union minister for small and medium enterprises, refused to let Narendra Modi sit next to Patil at a function organised by the Sardar Patel Memorial Trust that is funded by taxpayers’ money. According to the usual protocol, Governor SC Jamir was to sit to Patil’s right and Modi to her left. Within days of this, Defence Minister A K Antony was to inaugurate the new command office of the Coast Guard in Gandhinagar on October 3. Modi was invited since it is obligatory for the chief minister to be present at all such functions, but his office was surprised to get an invitation card which did not have his name printed as one of the dignitaries who would be present. His aides told senior Coast Guard officials that he would not attend the function. When Antony was told of this two days before the scheduled inaugural, he endorsed Modi’s stand — since there was no time to print and distribute fresh cards with Modi’s name on them, the function was cancelled.