Author: S Gurumurthy
Publication: The New Indian Express
Date: August 13 2008
URL: http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IE720080813021222&Page=7&Title=TheOped&Topic=0
[Note from the Hindu Vivek Kendra: Soniaji
claimed to have listened to her inner voice and declined the opportunity to
become the prime minister of India. However, it seems the inner voice lost
its vocal chords in this instance.]
The Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, must
have witnessed with his family the grand opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics
on the TV screen in his Race Course Road residence in Delhi, like all ordinary
Indians did. Even as he was sitting before the TV, over 80 other heads of
government from all over the world - from the gigantic USA to tiny Singapore
- were enjoying the great show in the VVIP enclosure at the National Stadium
in Beijing as invitees of the Olympics host, China.
Why was Manmohan Singh in Delhi and not Beijing
on that day? Was he fatigued by the confidence test in Parliament? Not at
all. On the contrary, he would have loved to go to Beijing as the victor in
Parliament. But he just did not get the Olympic invite, which all other heads
of state got. And more. He was not even aware he had been left out and, instead
who got it. Sonia Gandhi had been invited. Why was he left out? Who kept him
out? Who reduced him to witnessing the Olympics on the TV screen and humiliated
him? Read on.
Those were the tumultuous days preceding the
vote of confidence on the UPA government on July 22, 2008. Neither the media
nor the reader or the viewer was interested in any other subject. The news
of Amar Singh contracting out MPs from all parties to vote for the UPA government
dominated the print and electronic media. Yet here and there some reports
about how "China had ignored Manmohan Singh" and "invited Sonia
Gandhi instead" had leaked out. But the mainline media had no space for
it.
The media that had put out the news had actually
blamed China for humiliating Manmohan Singh - and India. As if to confirm
that, Sanjaya Baru, press adviser to the Prime Minister, told the media that
"he was not aware" that the PM had not received the customary Olympics
invite! The External Affairs Ministry kept silent when asked whether not inviting
the PM was a diplomatic snub for India. All this on July 15.
The next day, the spokesperson of the Chinese
embassy in Delhi, Li Minggang, let the cat out of the bag: "The Chinese
Olympic Committee (COC) and the International Olympic Committee (IOC), as
per procedure, had asked the Olympic committee of every country to choose
its own chief guest." The Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Liu Jianchao,
also told the media: "According to the IOC stipulation and Olympic custom,
heads of governments and states shall be invited by the Olympic committees
of their own countries and attend the Olympics as accredited distinguished
guests; we respect the decision of the Olympic committee."
That means the COC and IOC had asked the Indian
Olympic Association (IOA) to name the chief guest from India. And it was the
IOA that scored out the Prime Minister's name and put in Sonia Gandhi's. Irritated
that his country was being blamed for what India has done, Li Minggang told
the media: "You should ask Suresh Kalmadi this question, of who is being
invited from India." Is any more evidence needed to nail the culprit?
A congressman, Kalmadi was head of the IOA.
According to Chinese officials, it was he
who had told China that Sonia Gandhi should be invited, not the Prime Minister.
When the existence of the government itself was in doubt then, whether China
had ignored Manmohan Singh or invited Sonia was perhaps irrelevant to the
media. Moreover, citing government sources, a section of the media had reported
that Sonia Gandhi would not attend the event as the PM had not been invited
and she had asked Sports Minister M S Gill to go to Beijing instead. This,
as the final act later showed, was obviously a damage control model and a
red herring. The plot thickens now.
Manmohan Singh won the confidence vote on
July 22, that is, a week after the media had reported that Sonia Gandhi would
not go to Beijing. On July 25, the Chinese Government officially, but quietly,
sent the invite to her, obviously as Kalmadi wanted. But since the media was
told that not she, but M S Gill would go, no one suspected anything.With just
three days to go for the Olympic opening, India Abroad News Service (IANS)
reported that on August 2 Sonia and her family had finally decided to attend
the Olympics. But why did she take one full week to make her decision public,
after Suresh Kalmadi had stolen the Olympic invite meant for the Prime Minister
and given it to her as early as July 25? Obviously, much had to be done in
that week. She had to settle a critical issue with China. And that was where
she would be seated in the opening ceremony. The protocol was clear. She could
not sit with the 80 heads of state in the VVIP enclosure, as she was not the
official head of India and would therefore only be seated in a Chinese guests'
enclosure far away from the VVIP enclosure.
With few other options, she had to settle
for the less reputable enclosure which would not - and eventually did not
- give her the media focus and attention she would have liked. The next issue
was in whose luxury aircraft - in Mukesh Ambani's Airbus or Lakshmi Mittal's
Boeing - to travel? The pressure from both, reportedly, was so high that finally
she decided not to travel by either. Yet not a word in the mainline media
about the fact that Suresh Kalmadi had struck out the PM's name from the Olympic
Invite and filled her name on it, thus confining Manmohan Singh to Race Course
Road on that day; that her first stand that she would not go to Beijing was
just a red-herring; that she and her family had already planned to go; that
she was not seated in the VVIP enclosure. The media had totally suppressed
the motives of the petty conspirators.
Here is a typical report sans such crucial
facts: "Clad in pink Banarasi sari with golden border, Congress president
Sonia Gandhi sprang to her feet and waved enthusiastically when the Indian
contingent of sportspersons marched past the National Stadium." But for
the IANS, which incidentally works from outside India, many of the facts would
not have come to light.
Thus the attempt to substitute Sonia Gandhi
for the Prime Minister and seat her along with 80 other heads of state in
the VVIP enclosure in Beijing Olympics failed.
Result: A lucky M S Gill was representing
the Prime Minister and India at the Olympics as per protocol and it was he,
not Sonia, who was rubbing shoulders with George Bush and others in the VVIP
enclosure!
So, finally, Kalmadi ended up substituting
one Singh for another, but not Sonia for Singh! Obviously the pettiness of
10 Janpath has humiliated the PM. Also India.
QED: It was not Hu Jintao who shamed Manmohan
Singh or India, but, Sonia Gandhi herself.
- comment@gurumurthy.net
