Prez Office Comes to US Bride’s Rescue, Clears Way After

KOCHI:
President Ram Nath Kovind’s office has come to the rescue of a foreign bride and directed officials to ensure her wedding planned at a star hotel here on Tuesday is in no way affected owing to his coincidental stay there.

Not only that, the woman, who took to Twitter to seek help from the Rashtrapati Bhavan on Sunday, also got the Presidential wishes for her marriage to be held at the Taj Vivanta on Tuesday. Ashley Hall sent out the SoS tagging @rashtrapatibhvn after her planned wedding apparently ran into trouble in view of the overnight stay of Kovind at the hotel en route to Lakshadweep on an official visit on Tuesday.

Kovind’s secretariat swung into action and directed officials that his security drill should not affect the wedding of Hall, who had chosen the port city in Kerala for it, official sources here said. According to sources, the woman is from the US.

The wedding was some months ago planned to be held at the hotel. They came to know later that Kovind will be staying at the same hotel on Monday night. The bride posted a tweet seeking help for the smooth conduct of her marriage.

“Hey @rashtrapatibhvn- anything you can do to help us with your security team so that we dont have to move our wedding from the @Taj_Cochin in under 48 hours?” Hall had also tagged an earlier tweet of her’s which indicated they had been asked to reschedule the wedding.

“Sometimes you plan a destination wedding for 8 months at an elite hotel in India. Sometimes the President of India makes an impromptu trip to that hotel on the day of the wedding. Sometimes you get 48 hours notice to plan an entirely new wedding.” The Rashtrapati Bhavan, which saw her tweets, intervened.

The top cops of the city analysed the situation and made the arrangements ensuring that the visit of the President and the wedding of the foreigner goes without interference. In its reply via Twitter, the Rashtrapati Bhavan said: “We are glad the issues have been resolved. President Kovind conveys his best wishes to you on this joyous occasion”.

The woman in turn thanked the state officials and the hotel staff for the help and expressed hope the wedding would take place with the blessings of the ‘honourable’ President.

“I want to thank the @Taj_Cochin and State Officials for working on this with us throughout the day. Hoping we can have a beautiful wedding with the blessings of The Honorable @rashtrapatibhvn”, she tweeted in reply to the gesture of the President’s office.

The hotel declined to divulge any detail about the woman and her marriage. The President arrived here in the afternoon on Monday at the Naval Air station here.

He was received by Governor Arif Mohammad Khan, Minister G Sudhakaran, top Navy officials and senior officials of the state government. He will leave for Lakshadweep at 9.30 am on Tuesday.