The Union Minister for Rural Development Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, who was taken by surprise when the Foreign Office asked him to meet the visiting first lady of Syria, was in for a rude shock from the security establishment a few days later when he tried to be a good host to 14 ministers from Asia-Pacific attending a conference of rural development ministers. Singh relied on the inputs given to him when was meeting the Syrian first lady. He was told that the Syrian entourage was impressed by the Delhi metro and found it better than even the famed London metro. This was enough for Singh, who then decided to take all the invitees of the international conference for a ride on the Metro. But his plans came crashing down when the security establishment showed the red flag, saying it would be a “nightmare” given that the delegation included a minister from Afghanistan. Singh was upset, but chose not to make an issue of it.

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