Known for his contacts with every section of the society, President Pranab Mukherhee today virtually turned the second 'At Home' function at Rashtrapati Bhawan on the occasion of Republic Day into a meet-the-people programme.
Immediately after the rendition of National Anthem and customary exchange of greetings with VVIPs including visiting Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Mukherjee started walking towards the invitees.
While some were seeking autographs, others wanted to shake hands with the President who virtually went round the sprawling lawns of Mughal Gardens where his guests had gathered on the occasion.
The security personnel of the President also did not pose any hurdle for those who wanted to greet him at the event which saw a huge turnout of nearly 2,000 people.
The visiting Japanese Prime Minister, who was closely watching the President, also decided to follow him and started meeting people.
Abe too took a round of the Mughal Gardens and met people. Some of them queued up to meet him and even handed over their visiting cards to the visiting dignitary.
The first one to be greeted by Abe was 94-year-old Marshal of the Air Force Arjan Singh with whom he spent a few minutes before moving on to other people. Singh too moved around and shook hands with guests, much to the delight of officers from the defence services.
Seeing the impromptu meet-the-people programme, Congress President Sonia Gandhi as well as BJP leader Sushma Swaraj also got up from their chairs and mixed with the crowd.
After meeting people for over 25 minutes, the President returned to the VVIP enclosure and others settled too down.
Other dignitaries were Vice President Hamid Ansari, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar, Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde, besides BJP leaders L K Advani and Arun Jaitley.
