A day before Prime Minister Narendra Modi's planned visit to the ISRO headquarters in Bengaluru to commend the team behind the successful Chandrayaan-3 mission, the Congress party made an allegation on Friday, August 25 claiming that the Prime Minister had prevented Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah from welcoming him at the airport.
PM Narendra Modi was set to arrive directly to Bengaluru at 6 am the following day on Saturday, August 26, after a recent foreign trip, to congratulate ISRO. The allegation came from Congress leader Jairam Ramesh, who said that Modi's decision was rooted in his ‘irritation’ with the Karnataka Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister. CM Siddaramaiah not receiving the PM on his arrival was seen as a breach of protocol.
"The Prime Minister is scheduled to directly land in Bengaluru tomorrow at 6 am after his latest foreign jaunt to congratulate ISRO. He is apparently so irritated with the CM and Deputy CM of Karnataka for felicitating the scientists of ISRO before him, that he has purportedly barred the CM from receiving him at the airport, going against protocol," Jairam Ramesh said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“Has PM Modi forgotten CM Modi’s visit to the Space Applications Centre in Ahmedabad on 22nd Oct, 2008 just after the successful launch of the Chandrayaan-I at a time when Dr. Manmohan Singh was the Prime Minister?" Ramesh further said.
However, PM Modi later clarified the decision while addressing the public outside the HAL airport in Bengaluru. He said that his decision not to involve the Chief Minister and others in receiving him was due to his uncertainty about the time of his arrival in Bengaluru. He said that he didn't want to inconvenience them so early in the morning. "As I did not know when I would reach Bengaluru, I requested the Chief Minister, Deputy Chief Minister and Governor not to take trouble so early (to receive me),” PM Modi said.
In response to the controversy, Deputy Chief Minister Shivakumar explained that the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) had advised against sending anyone to receive PM Modi. "Either me or the Chief Minister was ready to go and receive him, whatever the time be. But since we got official information from the Prime Minister's Office, we wanted to respect it and we didn't want to be part of any politics," said Shivakumar.
During PM Modi’s arrival, Chief Secretary Vandita Sharma, DG and IGP Alok Mohan, Bengaluru Police Commissioner B Dayananda, Bengaluru Regional Commissioner Amlan Biswas, and Bengaluru Deputy Commissioner KA Dayanand were present to receive the Prime Minister. Several BJP leaders waited outside the HAL Airport and greeted the PM from behind the barricades.