The Protocol Fix

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French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, wants to bring his new supermodel girlfriend, Carla Bruni, with him to attend our Republic Day parade. The solemnity of the Republic Day parade is under threat(not my view but some political outfit somewhere must be planning protests to save our ancient civilisation). For the poor Indian bureaucrats who are already under pressure from the opportunist politicians and confused public, Sarkozy and his girlfriend are creating protocol problems. Looks like a consipiracy because the signing of a crucial Indo-French agreement on transfer of technology for production of French cruise missiles by India was put off in September last year .The Chinese didn’t have to deal with protocol tangles because his mother was his official companion when he went to Beijing. Saudi Arabia refused to host the French president’s girlfriend(they can get away with anything). In Egypt and Jordan, they holidayed together publicly but before the official leg of the visit, so no protocol issues.

There is an elaborate protocol for the republic day parade under which the spouse of the Indian President escorts the spouse of the chief guest to the VVIP enclosure on Rajpath where they sit with the Prime Minister. If Bruni was Sarkozy’s wife she would be led by President Pratibha Patil’s husband Devi Singh Shekhawat to her seat in the front row( I am not sure how exciting that would have been for the Sarkozy girl). She would have recieved a red carpet welcome in the forecourt of Rashtrapati Bhavan and would be seated next to Patil at the state banquet if she was the wife. Nobody knows now where Ms Bruni should be seated as there is no precedent for a head of state visiting with his girlfriend.

Reports suggest that President Sarkozy has already married Ms Bruni in a secret ceremony in Paris. I don’t know how happy the French public is about the news of their president’s marriage, It is good news for the Indian government. It would be easier to arrange trips and photo-ops at government-managed handicraft emporiums and public-funded schools. If time permits, the “first lady” and the husband could be taken to Agra to pose in front of the Taj Mahal. General Mussharaf, Lady Diana, Bill Clinton, all of them had the oppurtunity of posing in front of the monument of love.

It is high time we make amends in the rulebook and solve these protocol issues. This is the first time Indian officials are facing this problem but this would definitely not be the last time. It could be repeated by another visitor from another Western, African or Latin American country. Imagine a gay head of state visiting India with his gay spouse! It is not impossible, countries like Netherland have legalised gay marriages.

 

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Filed under Bruni, Family, French president, Protocol, Republic day parade, Sarkozy