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| HAPPY DAYS: President Patil with (from left) the Queen, sports minister M.S. Gill and Suresh Kalmadi in 2009 |
How special is the special relationship?
This week’s Oxbridge scholarship essay is: compare and contrast Barack Obama’s state visit to Britain last week with Pratibha Patil’s in October 2009.
Britain has a “special relationship” with India and a “special relationship” with the US — and Pakistan is as important to Britain as India. So which is the most special?
Anyone who protests that President Obama is both head of state and of government while President Patil is only head of state without any executive authority has a mark deducted for trying to be too clever.
It is unlikely that Britain’s relationship either with the US or with India, which remains close, was much affected by the state visits but we shall see.
At any rate, here are some helpful exam notes.
President Obama and the First Lady, Michelle Obama, stayed at Buckingham Palace, whilst President Patil and First Gent Devisingh Shekhawat put up at Windsor Castle.
In protocol terms, one is not more important than the other. But since everyone, including even visiting dictators, has stayed at Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle, just across the river from Eton College, is probably the classier joint.
Barack Obama 0: Pratibha Patil 1.
On the other hand, the Obamas got to meet William and Kate who have just returned from a 10-day honeymoon in the Seychelles. Miraculously, the couple were not bothered by the media as Kate got herself a nice suntan.
Kate and William, who have been rebranded “the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge” by the Queen, came to Buckingham Palace for a 20-minute audience with the Obamas who had watched the royal wedding on television. The Obamas asked what it was like to go through the ordeal of a high profile wedding. William also told the President about his work as an RAF search and rescue helicopter pilot. There was no such chat arranged with the Indian President, though in October 2009 Kate and William had not even announced their engagement.
Barack Obama 1: Pratibha Patil 0.
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| BE MY GUEST: Kate with Michelle at Buckingham Palace |
Fashion wars
The fashion experts, who analysed the outfits worn by Kate and Michelle, say the former “blew her American rival out of the water”.
For the record, Kate Middleton wore a “bandage style Shola dress”, costing a modest £175, from Reiss, a British High Street chain. There was such a frenzy for the outfit she had picked that the retailer’s website crashed.
David Reiss, founder and managing director of the company, was delighted with the product endorsement by “Britain’s First Lady of Fashion”: “We are thrilled that Kate continues to be a customer of Reiss, and that she has chosen one of our dresses for such an important occasion.”
Michelle picked an outfit from America, a “patterned prom style by Barbara Tfank”, costing £1,400. The Los Angeles-based designer “dresses everyone from Adele to Vanessa Redgrave”.
The loyal American press made it one all: “The very stylish Mrs Obama wore a belted Barbara Tfank dress, boasting floral abstract print that she nicely accented with a peony-pink bolero and pewter sling-backs… Classic First Lady attire. Kate Middleton wore a svelte camel-coloured bodice from Reiss, showing off her fabulous honeymoon tan.”
According to the UK media, Kate’s look “was finished by a plain black Maud clutch bag by Anya Hindmarch Bespoke and matching heels from another high street store, L.K. Bennett. Apart from her priceless engagement ring, which once belonged to Princess Diana, her jewellery was as low-key as her outfit”.
So what about the Indian President’s fashion style? She thoughtfully ensured that her buttoned-down blouses with long sleeves to the wrist and usually worn with thick gloves, did not cause any website to crash.
Michelle Obama 0: Pratibha Patil 1.
The US President wore conventional suits or black tie, while Devisingh Shekhawat asserted his distinctive fashion sense by turning up to the Lord Mayor’s “white tie only” banquet in a scruffy duffle coat.
Barack Obama 0: Devisingh Shekhawat 1.
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Table talk
To demonstrate the closeness of the US-UK military alliance — they intend to go on bombing Libya until Gaddafi goes — President Obama and David Cameron formed a table tennis dream team.
They went to a South London school, the Globe Academy — old fashioned schools are being replaced by strange institutions called “academies” in modern England — where they played two 16-year-old pupils, Jason Do and Jamiyu Mojaji.
The two leaders were very un-Indian about it all: for starters, they could walk unaided.
“Looking like a lean, mean table tennis machine, Obama was every inch the all-American sportsman as he approached each move with style and panache,” it was reported. “But if he was looking for a winning team-mate in Cameron, then Obama might well have been disappointed. As Obama moved effortlessly around the table, with a look of steely determination on his face, he seemed to win the admiration of the schoolchildren watching the game. However, Cameron — at times — looked as though he didn’t quite know what to do with the ball — or himself. At one point the PM seemed to blindly strike out with the bat, all the while with one hand still in his pocket.”
President Patil, in contrast, did not waste her time or energy on silly exercises or going for an early morning run around Windsor Castle. Wisely, she preserved all her energy so that on returning home, she could continue to work for the uplift of the masses — and, like Obama, a second term in office.
Barack Obama 0: Pratibha Patil 1.
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Serve ’’ wait
Pratibha Patil, being a strict vegetarian, did not have to bother with any of this but Barack Obama and David Cameron “stood shoulder to shoulder” in the garden of 10, Downing Street, in glorious sunshine and grilled hamburgers, lamb chops and sausages at a barbecue lunch for US and British servicemen. Their wives, Michelle and Samantha, served salads.
Some say Cameron’s joke fell flat when he told the gathered guests that it was “probably the first time in history a British Prime Minister has given an American President a bit of a grilling”. The British Prime Minister was “met with a resounding silence, broken only by the sound of the wind”.
It is hard to imagine President Patil standing behind a smoking chulha in the Mughal Gardens at Rashtrapati Bhavan with a visiting head of state and dishing out chapatti, sabzi and dal to a line of high powered guests. It is even harder to imagine Devisingh Shekhawat dishing out the chutney.
Barack Obama 0: Pratibha Patil 1.
Tittle tattle
After Barack Obama, generally accepted as one of the best orators among American presidents, had addressed a joint session of Parliament in Westminster Hall, parliamentarians rushed to greet him as though mobbing Mahendra Singh Dhoni after a World Cup win.
“I managed to shake his hand,” a delighted Lord Gulam Noon told me afterwards. “There was a lump in our throats. He was inspirational.”
Sadly, this is like the last over of the recent KKR-MI match: President Patil read out speeches about India’s economic achievements, including 9 per cent GDP growth, both at the Windsor Castle and Lord Mayor’s banquets.
Barack Obama 10: Pratibha Patil 1.
