The Congress Party on Monday demanded an apology from Prime Minister Narendra Modi for excluding Kerala Chief Minister Oomen Chandy's name for a function to be held in Kerala tomorrow.
"The Congress Party is absolutely concerned about the fact that if you look at the situation where the chief minister of a state is suppose to preside over a function, invited the Prime Minister to inaugurate it and then two days before the function he gets a request from the organisers to withdraw himself from the function as the PMO's plan did not include the Chief Minister's name. It is a cause of great concern and agitation in the state of Kerala," Congress MP Shashi Tharoor told the media here.
"The Chief Minister represents the people of the state and it's an insult to the entire state. We want the Prime Minister to apologise to the Chief Minister and tell him that if he(Oomen Chandy) won't come I(PM Modi) don't come either," he added.
Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy was on Saturday asked to keep off a function to be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi by the Shree Narayana Dharma Paripalana (SNDP) Yogam, which had invited him earlier to preside over it.
The function, scheduled for Tuesday, is to unveil the former Chief Minister and Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president, R. Sankar's statue in Kollam.
Meanwhile, the government today clarified that Prime Minister's Office has no role in excluding Kerala Chief Minister Oomen Chandy's name. Replying to a point raised by Congress leader K C Venugopal, Home Minister Rajnath Singh said centre does not want any confrontation with any state.
Rajnath said the Congress leader's allegation is completely baseless and without any facts. The Home minister said the socio cultural organisation Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana (SNDP) has unanimously passed a resolution not to invite the chief minister.
