The Hindu : National : Choreographing a departure

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jul 30, 2004

National

National

Choreographing a departure

By Harish Khare

NEW DELHI, JULY 29. The Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, senior Union Ministers and Congress leaders today turned up to give a send-off to the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, on his first overseas visit since taking office in May this year. The large turnout came about despite Dr. Singh sending out word yesterday that no Cabinet Minister need come to the airport to bid him farewell. As a matter of convention, ministerial gathering on such occasions is an established political ritual, giving a clue to the equations a prime minister has with his colleagues. Dr. Singh wanted a change of scene.

However, according to a senior political functionary, it was felt that the Congress president and others should be seen as seeing off Dr. Singh, thereby sending out the message that the Congress as well as the United Progressive Alliance were all respect to the Prime Minister. That Ms. Gandhi travelled to the Safdurjung Airport (from where Dr. Singh left in a helicopter to the Indira Gandhi International Airport) was intended to put to rest the suggestion that she was the real power centre in the Government and that Dr. Manmohan Singh was merely the presiding deity.

Ms. Gandhi's gesture of waiting in line at the Safdurjung Airport, according to the political functionary, was merely another reminder of her expressed desire that she did not want to be seen as doing anything that would distract from the Prime Minister's prestige and authority. Besides her, senior Ministers Pranab Mukherjee, Arjun Singh, Mani Shanker Aiyar and P.M. Sayeed also put in an appearance — just to drive home the point. Ministers from the other parties such as Raghuvansh Prasad Singh of the Rashtriya Janata Dal and T.R. Baalu of the DMK were also there, sending out the message of a united political house.

No less significant was the presence of the AICC functionaries — Ambika Soni, Motilal Vora, Salman Khursheed. Institutionally speaking, the AICC functionaries owe their respect to Ms. Gandhi and their absence would have gone unnoticed had Ms. Gandhi and others decided not to travel to the airport.

All in all, Dr. Singh's departure did turn out to be a well-choreographed nuanced political event.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

National