Gandhis skip Bharat Ratna award function: President Ram Nath Kovind on Thursday conferred the Bharat Ratna, the country’s highest civilian award, to former President Pranab Mukherjee and Bharatiya Jana Sangh leader Nanaji Deshmukh and singer Bhupen Hazarika (both posthumously).

While Mukherjee received the award personally, Hazarika’s son Tej and Virenderjeet Singh, a close relative of Deshmukh were present at the event to collect the prestigious award.

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The event held at the iconic Durbar Hall of Rashtrapati Bhavan was attended by several dignitaries including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Vice President Venkaiah Naidu, veteran BJP leader LK Advani, Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and others. However, the conspicuous absence of top Congress leaders Sonia and Rahul Gandhi raised quite a few eyebrows.

News agency ANI reported that Rahul Gandhi was invited for the event, however, the exact reason behind him skipping it was not known. Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh also didn’t attend the function. However, Congress leaders Ahmed Patel, Janardan Dwivedi, Anand Sharma, Shashi Tharoor and Sushmita Dev were seen sitting amidst the guests.

“We congratulate former president Pranab Mukherjee for receiving the Bharat Ratna. He worked tirelessly across multiple decades to serve the people of India in multiple roles including that as Union Minister in several Congress Governments,” the Congress party said on Twitter.

The Bharatiya Janata Party was quick to latch on to the opportunity to corner the Congress top leadership for not ignoring the Bharat Ratna award function. “Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi didn’t attend the ceremony that awarded Bharat Ratna, among others, to long time Congressman and former President of India Shri Pranab Mukherjee. Guess why?” Amit Malviya, BJP IT Cell head, said in his tweet.

The Congress leadership had raised objections to Pranab Mukherjee’s decision to attend an event of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) at the organisation’s headquarters in Nagpur in June 2018. However, Mukherjee had ignored the party’s advice and went on to attend the event.