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Even the Planning Commission was not untouched by the row over deputy consul Devyani Khobragade in the last few weeks. Recently, a senior official from the Planning Commission refused to take part in a panel discussion in which a top US official in India was also participating. An anodyne official reason for the Planning Commission official's absence was given, but insiders said the real reason was that he had expressed discomfort at sharing the dais with someone representing the US government when his own government was in the middle of a diplomatic confrontation.