President Pranab Mukherjee prefers 'Shri' to 'His Excellency'

New Delhi: President Pranab Mukherjee has decided to do away with the traditional prefix of 'His Excellency' and replace it with 'Shri' instead. The President's office made this clear to a university in Bihar which is printing invitation cards to a convocation ceremony that President Pranab will be presiding over on Wednesday. Lalit Narayan Mishra University (LNMU) Registrar Vijay Prasad Singh said that the President's secretariat had sent a letter to the university recently stating that he wants traditional honorific like 'His Excellency' be dropped as prefix to his name and replaced with the simple prefix 'Shri'.

"We have complied with the directive and deleted honorific of 'His Excellency' before the President's name and replace with the word 'Shri' in the invitation letters for the

university's convocation to be held on October 3," he said. The first bunch of invitation letters printed for the convocation function had 'His Excellency' prefixed to Mukherjee's name and were distributed to some dignitaries. "We have carried out suitable amendments while printing second lot of invitation letters."

The President\'s office made this clear to a university in Bihar which is printing invitation cards to a convocation ceremony that President Pranab will be presiding over on Wednesday.

The letter also asked to do away with distinct and taller chair for the seating of the President at the convocation function and accordingly the university has arranged for chairs of equal height for all guests on the Dias, Singh said. Bihar Governor Devanand Konwar, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi will be among the nine prominent personalities who will share the Dias with the president, who will be the chief guest at the function, he said.

With Additional Inputs from PTI

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