Costly wedding, ’cheap’ gifts!

Guests disappointed as they didn't get the valuable return gifts they had expected

Costly wedding, 'cheap' gifts!

Guests disappointed as they didn't get the valuable return gifts they had expected

It was touted to be the costliest wedding in the country and had generated a lot of interest and curiosity. But by the time it was over, it turned out to be a bit of dampener, especially for the guests who had expected to get princely gifts for attending the function.

All are invited: The wedding saw around 20,000 guests from both the
bride and groom's sides. Pic/Rajeev Tyagi

On Tuesday, more than 7000 people accompanied the groom as part of barat. "Around 2, 000 baratis stayed back till the ceremony ended at 4:30am expecting attractive return gifts. There was a rumour that each barati will be given a Tata Nano car or gold chain and a ring besides Rs 21,000 cash. But seeing that the wedding had come under the media scanner, the extravagant plans were shelved and each barati was presented with just Re 1," said one of the guests who had stayed back till the end.

In all there were around 20,000 guests and a lot of them had come to see the groom, Lalit Tanwar, arrive at the venue in a helicopter. But the chopper act too had to be shelved as it did not get clearance from Director General of Civil Aviation due to bad weather.

"It has been planned that the bride Yogita (who will go to her parent's home in the morning as per the custom) will then fly with her father, ex-MLA Sukhbir Singh, from Jaunpur village to her in law's house at Asola in the Fatehpur Beri, where a helipad has already been made. The helicopter will reach Jaunpur village at around 2:30 pm and then it will be gifted to Tanwar family," said a source.

Talking to MiD DAY about the interest that the expenditure on his son's wedding has generated, Congress leader Kanwar Singh Tanwar said, " I have always disclosed my assets, so I have invited everyone to attend the marriage and see for themselves what the expenditure was. People who are talking about the chopper are invited to see it. Even before joining politics I've been doing social work regularly."