4,000 guests to attend Modi’s swearing-in

New Delhi: Over 4,000 invitees are scheduled to attend the swearing-in ceremony of Narendra Modi as the Prime Minister at 6 pm on Monday, including top leaders from Saarc nations, like Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif and Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse. Senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley said the invitation to SAARC leaders was a bid to “celebrate democracy”, but experts called it a “masterstroke” on New Delhi’s part to project to the world its standing in the region. Mr Modi’s mother Hiraben is expected to attend as well.

Pakistan prime minister's brother and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif met army chief General Raheel Sharif on Friday night for about half an hour and conveyed to him the importance of the visit to India to maintain good relations between the two countries and peace in the region, PML-N party sources told PTI. "According to the programme received from India, the Prime Minister will have a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Modi on the morning of May 27. The Prime Minister would also call on the President of India. The Prime Minister would return to Pakistan in the afternoon of May 27, 2014," a Foreign Office statement said.

Asked about the expectations from the Sharif-Modi meet, Pakistan Foreign Ministry sources said the two leaders are meeting for the first time and the effort will be to take forward the relationship. Prime Minister Sharif had telephoned Modi to congratulate him on his party's election victory and invited him to visit Pakistan after assuming office.

Every minister designate will be allowed to invite a maximum of four guests. The ceremony will begin at 6 pm and will last one hour and 10 minutes. All members of Parliament, from both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha are invited, but their spouses are not. All BJP national executive members are on the guest list. So are leaders of allied parties. Two former Presidents APJ Abdul Kalam and Pratibha Patil have been invited. Former prime ministers, Dr Manmohan Singh and HD Deve Gowda, are expected to attend.

Modi has invited all the leaders of member states of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) to the ceremony. Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai, Bhutan Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay, Nepal Prime Minister Sushil Koirala and Maldivian President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom have already confirmed they will attend the ceremony at the forecourt of the historic Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi.

Bangladesh will be represented by Parliament Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury at the swearing in ceremony as Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will be on a visit to Japan on that day. Chaudhury and Bhutan Prime Minister Tobgay will arrive here on Sunday. Modi will have "short duration bilateral meetings" with all the visiting dignitaries that will also be attended by restricted delegation from each side, the external affairs ministry spokesperson said.

During these meets, the leaders are expected to talk about ways to take forward the bilateral ties as also other key common challenges. On the scheduling of the bilateral talks, sources said the presidents will be the first, followed by the prime ministers and other representatives. This sequence will be followed in alphabetical order, they said. After the swearing in on May 26, the president will host a dinner for the leaders.