French paper calls Narayanan untouchable, India protests

Ministry sources said that the Indian embassy in Paris had already conveyed its strong displeasure about the article to the `Le Figaro’ newspaper, whose New Delhi correspondent had filed the despatch about the President.

According to the `Figaro’ story published yesterday, French president Jacques Chirac would be shaking hands with an “untouchable” President, a reference to Narayanan’s so-called Dalit roots.

While the article applauds Narayanan’s intellectual prowess, it also goes on to talk about the deplorable state of India’s “untouchable” community who still live in conditions of deep poverty and continue to be socially ostracised in India.

The sources stressed that the French newspaper article would in no way impact on the “quality”of the bilateral relationship, pointing out that Paris had in recent years gone out of its way to be “understanding” about India’s concerns.

Fears that the `Figaro’ story would snowball into another controversy on the lines of what happened recently between the Indian maid and her Indian diplomat employer, the sources felt, were unfounded.

Narayanan is currently on the first ever trip to France undertaken by an Indian president and he is being given red carpet treatment, whether in Paris, Toulouse, Marseilles, Beaux de Provence or Avignon.