Vice President traditionally does not attend: Rajya Sabha Secretariat on Nehru event

New Delhi, Nov 15: The Vice President "never attends such ceremonies organized in the Central Hall of Parliament as a matter of convention," the Rajya Sabha Secretariat said on Monday.

"It is hereby stated that Vice President of India never attends such ceremonies organized in the Central Hall of Parliament as a matter of convention and it was misleading to suggest that Vice President Shri M.Venkaiah Naidu skipped the ceremony yesterday," the Rajya Sabha secretariat said.

"The said misleading reports have caused deep distress to the Vice President Shri M.Venkaiah Naidu. Vice President Shri M.Venkaiah Naidu, who was out of Delhi yesterday paid tributes to the former Prime Minister late Shri Jawaharlal Nehru and the same was reported in the media," the statement added.

Opposition parties on Sunday questioned the "absence" of the Rajya Sabha Chairman, the Lok Sabha Speaker and union ministers at a traditional event marking the birth anniversary of India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru at Parliament's Central Hall.

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh termed as "atrocious" the absence of the presiding officers and union ministers at the Central Hall, while Trinamool Congress' Derek O'Brien also hit out at the government.

"Extraordinary scene today in Parliament at the traditional function to mark the birth anniversary of those whose portraits adorn the Central Hall. Speaker Lok Sabha absent. Chairman Rajya Sabha absent. Not a single Minister present. Can it get more atrocious than this?!" Ramesh, who is the Congress' chief whip in Rajya Sabha, said on Twitter.

Tagging Ramesh's tweet, TMC leader O'Brien said: "Nothing surprises me anymore. This dispensation is destroying India's great institutions, including #Parliament one day at a time."