Rajkot: Goof-ups in the names of invitees and guests at a function organized by a city-based school triggered an altercation between city BJP president and municipal commissioner Banchha Nidhi Pani during a press conference on Monday.
The press conference was about ‘Youth Fiesta’ that the Rajkot Municipal Corporation (RMC) is co-hosting with the Genius School jointly.
City BJP president Kamlesh Mirani lost his temper when he saw that his name was not “first” in the list of guests in the invitation. Moreover, Saurashtra University vice-chancellor’s name was wrongly printed as Dr Kamal Rathod instead of Dr Kamalsinh Dodia. Mirani was also furious as the names of standing committee chairman and mayor were not printed as per protocol.
Mirani asked Pani in a rather ‘insulting’ tone as to how an invitation was approved without proper verification by RMC staff when the civic body is co-hosting the event. He also asked Pani “how the staff under the commissioner did not look into the invitation, especially when there is a common protocol of RMC and a cultural officer appointed to look into this kind of matter?”
When contacted, Mirani said, “I told the commissioner in a positive tone that when there is a logo of RMC and civic body is co-hosting the event, the standing committee chairman is an invitee of all the events. SU VC’s surname was also wrong. So, I told him that he should see the invitation card’s sample before printing. If we make a mistake in VC’s name, it’s a discredit to RMC.”
Pani, however, denied that tempers were frayed. “There was nothing like altercation. Mirani was only inquiring me as to what we were doing in this event. When he is sitting in a press conference, he has right to know about the function.”
Dharmendra Mehtam, school trustee, said, “I admit that spelling VC’s name incorrectly is our mistake. But we don’t have much experience of hosting such events. Therefore, some mistakes happened.”