Bengaluru: Having received no official invite for a Nasscom event held in the city on Monday, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah chose to stay away from the event. The event was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
The chief minister did not get an invite either from Nasscom or the Prime Minister’s Office for the Indo-German summit which was followed by a working lunch at Leela Palace. Siddaramaiah, who had earlier in the day accompanied Modi and Merkel’s visit to the facility of German auto company Bosch, stayed away from the Nasscom event. Sources in the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) stated that it was “protocol violation”?but added that Siddaramaiah did not want the matter to be precipitated.
A?representative of Nasscom said the invites were sent by the PMO. Sources in the Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms said as the event was being attended by two heads of states, a decision on who should be invited was at the discretion of the two leaders. Nasscom representatives said they have no comments on the chief minister not being invited for the function.
Industries Minister R?V?Deshpande and Chief Secretary Kaushik Mukherjee had received invites but did not attend due to other official engagements.
Interestingly, as late as Sunday afternoon, the draft engagement for Monday of Siddaramaiah did mention that he would be attending the Nasscom event and also the working lunch.
However, it was only late in the evening that it was realised that there was no official invite for the chief minister. In the final engagement schedule, the Nasscom event was removed from the itinerary.
The summit attended by top honchos especially from the IT?sector was addressed by both Modi and Merkel.
Speaking to reporters in Tumakuru, Law Minister T?B?Jayachandra said that the PMO had breached the protocol by not inviting the chief minister for the event.
