Row over protocol as PM arrives to congratulate Isro scientists

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: Prime Minister Modi during his visit to Bengaluru and interaction with Isro scientists on Saturday, announced that Chandrayaan-3's landing point on the Moon will be named "Shiv Shakti Point," and the place where the Chandrayaan-2 lander crash-landed in 2019 would be known as "Tiranga Point".

However, an unseemly row has broken out over protocol with the PM saying he had requested the Karnataka Governor, CM and Deputy CM not to come to the airport to receive him as he did not want them to take the trouble of coming early morning and was not sure of his arrival time.

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh however alleged that the PM barred Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar from receiving him at the HAL Airport.

He claimed that the PM was irritated with Siddaramaiah for felicitating the Isro scientists before him.

Siddaramaiah had on Thursday visited the Missions Operations Complex at ISRO Telemetry Tracking and Command Network (and felicitated ISRO chief S Somanath and his team.