Jaswant mixes a cocktail of colours for friend Talbott

Meanwhile, back in Delhi, the frenetic activity of the last few days has finally given way to an expectant pause, since Clinton’s official visit to India only begins the morning after Holi, with a ceremonial reception at the forecourt of the Rashtrapati Bhawan.

It is now almost decided that the US President and Prime Minister A B Vajpayee will have a few minutes together, with their aides — on the Indian side, Principal Secretary Brajesh Mishra and Jaswant Singh and on the US side, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and National Security Adviser Sandy Berger.

Government sources reiterated that a `one-on-one’ meeting between Vajpayee and Clinton did not make sense, since, “negotiations between nations are not carried out without aides.”

Clearly, though, the real reason why an Indian PM hardly meets a foreign head of State or Government alone is because of the experience of the meeting between Indira Gandhi and Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto at Shimla in 1972. The so-called `secret agreement’ between the two, on converting the Line of Control into an international boundary never saw the light of day, since both Gandhi and Bhutto preferred to trust each other’s word — and not the cold truth of the written text.

At the delegation-level talks at Hyderabad House, then, both leaders will be flanked by their high-powered teams, and this is where the substance of the visit will be laid out. Cross-border terrorism sponsored by Pakistan, Kashmir, the nuclear issue, business, and so on, will be discussed in a somewhat freewheeling style.

Jaswant Singh, who surprised a lot of people by going to receive Clinton at the airport tonight, will accompany the President to Agra on March 22. It is here, with the Taj as the backdrop, that Singh and his counterpart Albright will sign the agreement on clean energy and the environment.

Since there is expected to be no minister-in-waiting for Clinton through the trip across India, the Government has requested some ministers to separately host the US President in each of these cities.

So, Minister of State for Small Industries Vasundhara Raje will be New Delhi’s representative in Jaipur and the nearby royal fort of Amber, Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Pramod Mahajan is expected to be in Hyderabad and Power minister Rangarajan Kumaramangalam in Mumbai.

Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha, who was requested by the various chambers of commerce to show face in Mumbai, is said to have politely declined because of the heavyweight crowd already in attendance.

But with the wrangling for invitations to the high-powered events finally over — the PM’s lunch (150 seats), the President’s banquet (100 seats), and to the US ambassador’s afternoon reception (700 invitees) the day after — protocol officers are now breathing easy.

Indian Americans are said to have cornered the largest chunk of seats at the PM’s lunch, about 20, a number of them either being donors to the Democratic Party or friends of the Bharatiya Janata Party abroad.