On an average, the red carpet has to be spread more than 50 times a year at New Delhi’s international airport and the strain put on the guest and the host nation is not visible to the public. Sometimes, the oddest thing happens to jam the smooth flow of state visits, which are planned after taking into consideration all the aspects of the visit.

The invitation itself is the result of considerable politicking. It is common for a VIP guest to invite his host at the end of a state visit and it would be highly embarrassing, if the host accepted it immediately. Elections in both the countries, state visits by other VIPs, the views of political parties (ruling as well as the opposition) have to be considered.

For example during his tenure, President Abdul Kalam had to be content touring ‘minor’ countries like Iceland, Bulgaria, Sudan. Many of the exciting destinations he would have liked to have travelled to, had already been visited by Prime Minister Vajpayee/his successor Manmohan Singh, or else were on the PM’s itinerary for forthcoming tours.

By convention the Prime Minister, President and Vice-President do not visit the same countries, as the host nation is reluctant to arrange two state visits for Indians within a short period.

This year, after detailed planning the President of France would be the honoured Chief Guest for the Indian Republic Day celebrations. Already the protocol department of the Indian government is finding itself in a dither, on what protocol to extend to the President’s girl friend Bruni, 39, who accompanies him to India.

Bruni would not be entitled to join Sarkozy, 52, for official engagements as the “girlfriend is not considered wife or spouse.” But really the Ministry of External Affairs should not worry. Two years ago, the stiff upper lip of the Indian establishment had to stretch into a welcoming smile, when Iceland president Olafur Ragnar Grimsson announced his decision to bring along girlfriend Dorrit Mousaieff as part of his delegation.

Flustered, but keen not to embarrass the head of state from Iceland, the Indian establishment, particularly Rashtrapathi Bhavan, decided that Mousaieff will be given the status of official hostess.  

Again it is hard to believe, but American officials claim that the US President’s state visit to foreign countries puts a greater  load on their security system, than the visit of  man to moon, thanks to terrorist bands, which are flourishing today. President Bush caused a stir in 2005, when he took secret service agents to oversee his food when he visited Thailand. According to a London newspaper, the US secret service officials reportedly injected his food into laboratory mice before serving it to him. The greatest protection is randomness; and whenever possible, secret service agents select food for the President from a large number of plates. Ingredients are bought anonymously, so suppliers will never know they provided food for the event. Menus were kept secret form even the kitchen staff. And the host’s chef has to learn to work under the watch of agents, who constantly take sample away to labs.

Oh! that’s embarrassing
Sometimes, the guest lands himself into an embarrassing position, like the visit of President Bush’s (senior) visit to Tokyo in the 1990s. He was not keeping well and his doctor asked him to skip the main banquet. Bush refused. But his illness persisted and during the state dinner Bush ‘threw up’ drenching the host, the Prime Minister of Japan.

Perhaps the most embarrassing incident to a state visit was when in 1966 President Nkrumah of Ghana, while attending a state banquet during his Peking visit, was told by his Chinese hosts that he was no longer the President, as a military coup had taken over Ghana.

Then in 1996, President Yeltsin of Russia was on state visit to Ireland. Just prior to his landing in Dublin, he had a heart attack! Since it was not politically wise to reveal that he had health problem, his aides decided that they would give out, that he had not recovered from his previous drinking session and it was highly embarrassing as the Irish President was standing at the foot of the aircraft ladder, with no Yeltsin in sight. Finally the Russian aircraft departed without Yeltsin’s “state visit.”

In the 1950s, President Rajendra Prasad landed in Moscow airport and found that the main door of the aircraft (before which the red carpet had been laid, with the Russian President waiting at the foot of the steps) would not open due to a mechanical snag. He had to get down from another side door in an unceremonious manner and walk to the Russian President.

 Sometimes the attempts by the host nation to eavesdrop on what the honoured state guest was discussing with his deputies, causes real embarrassments.

 In 2004, during the state visit of Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, the Pakistani government had tried to spy on him and had installed ‘bugs’ in his suite. But the Saudi secret service found out about the ‘spying’.

As a sign of their ire, they ripped up all the upholsteries in the rooms allotted in the beautiful Punjab House (where royal and distinguished guests are hosted), just immediately after Crown Prince left the premises, so that the Pakistanis would know that they had been caught in the act. But, that they had taken the matter really seriously, became evident, when the Saudis left without giving the usual magnificent baksheesh of thousands of rupees, which the Pakistani staff were expecting.

The great British statesman Winston Churchill had one standard procedure, whenever he was housed in magnificent Russian palaces during his state visits.The first thing the British Prime Minister used to do was to go through all the rooms of his suite shouting “You b@#*%#ds, I know this room is bugged and will not be fooled by you.”

Maharaja Features