India invites global leaders to attend Modi's oath taking to third term

New Delhi: India is likely to invite leaders from neighboring countries, including Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, to the oath-taking ceremony of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his third consecutive term, which is set to take place on June 8, sources said.

Modi is all set to take charge as the prime minister for a historic third consecutive term with the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) winning 293 seats in the Lok Sabha polls. The people familiar with the matter said that the top leaders of Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Nepal and Mauritius are likely to be among the foreign leaders to be invited for Modi’s oath-taking ceremony.

The media division of Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s office said Modi invited him to the swearing-in ceremony. It said Wickremesinghe accepted the invite. It said Wickremesinghe congratulated Modi on the electoral victory in a phone call. “During the conversation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi invited President Wickremesinghe to his swearing-in ceremony, which President Wickremesinghe accepted,” it said.

Modi also had a phone conversation with Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. In the phone conversation, Modi invited Hasina to attend his swearing-in ceremony and she accepted it, diplomatic sources said. The people cited above said Nepalese Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’, Bhutanese Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay and Prime Minister of Mauritius Pravind Jugnauth are set to be invited to Modi’s swearing-in ceremony.

Modi had a separate phone conversations with Prachanda. The formal invitations are set to be sent on Thursday, said one of the people cited above. The leaders of regional grouping SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) countries attended Modi’s first swearing-in ceremony when he took the reins as the prime minister after a massive electoral victory for the BJP.

Leaders of the BIMSTEC countries attended Modi’s swearing-in ceremony in 2019 when he became prime minister for the second consecutive term. Modi is likely to take oath on June 8. Though the BJP could not get a majority on its own in the polls, the party-led alliance secured 293 seats out of 543. The majority mark in the Lower House is 272.

Source: PTI