Pawar given seat in V(IP) row, not row 5: Prez’s office

NEW DELHI:

Rashtrapati Bhavan

, which hosted PM Narendra Modi’s swearing-in on May 30, set to rest a controversy raging over the perceived slight to NCP chief Sharad Pawar over the seat allotted to him during the ceremony.

Pawar had skipped the programme after his staff alleged breach in protocol over a “fifth row seat” even though he is a former Union minister and former chief minister.

Rashtrapati Bhavan, however, clarified that Pawar was invited to the VVIP section where most senior guests of his stature were seated, an arrangement that entitled him to a “labelled” front row seat. In a tweet, Ashok Malik, press secretary to President Ram Nath Kovind, said Pawar was designated to be seated in the first row of the VVIP section, marked ‘V’, but this appeared to have been misread by Pawar’s staff as Roman number 5.