Sri Ram College of Commerce, which had hosted Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi recently, invited Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to its campus but he has expressed inability to do so in view of the on-going Parliament session.
PMO sources today said a regret letter was sent to SRCC on February 19. The reason stated was that the Prime Minister does not attend any function, other than government programmes, when Parliament session is on.
SRCC Principal P C Jain earlier said they have approached the Prime Minister for attending the college's annual day celebrations and are awaiting his response.
He said the College was expecting the Prime Minister to give them a date during the recess of the budget session.
Modi had addressed the SRCC students on February 6 and said his mantra was politics of development and not vote-bank.
Jain defended the invitation extended to Modi, which had evoked criticism, saying, "We haven't done anything wrong. In democracy we have the right to listen all kinds of people and the college has done nothing wrong.
"Media created so much hype on this issue but for us it was like any other event. We think college is bigger than anybody in the world," he said.
"To invite Modi is totally the choice of the students. To meet the expectations of students is our duty so no body from the college complained to me about Modi's visit.
"The college has invited many dignitaries like APJ Abdul Kalam, P Chidambaram, Pranab Mukherjee, E Shreedharn and many more in the past. This time our economist PM is expected to speak on economy and growth," Jain added.
