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President's banquet to set
the tone for summit

George Iype in New Delhi

It is a power dinner that nobody wants to miss. But seats are limited and only 100 odd will sit across the dinner table with Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf.

The official banquet that President K R Narayanan will host in Musharraf's honour on Saturday night at Rashtrapati Bhavan will, in fact, set the tone for the Sunday's Agra summit meeting between Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and President Musharraf.

In an effort to foster the true spirit of harmony and friendship, Narayanan's banquet will be enlivened with musical compositions from the two countries.

The Naval band will kick-off the dinner with Alisha Chinai's Made in India... and the evening will be brought to a close with Meri awaz suno..., the chart-buster number of Pakistani pop group Junoon.

In between, the band will play around eight songs, including Ghulam Ali's famous gazal Chupke chupke..., the memorable song Chalte chalte... from the 1974 Hindi film of the same name and Kisi ki muskurahaton... from the 1959 Raj Kapoor-starrer Anari.

"The music, the food and the ambience will be one of harmony and peace. It will be the only function where General Musharraf will mingle with India's who's who," a senior official commented.

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, his four senior cabinet ministers, opposition leader Sonia Gandhi, National Democratic Alliance convenor George Fernandes, heads of other major political parties, a team of top bureaucrats led by Principal Secretary Brajesh Mishra, prominent personalities from the fields of art, culture and business will be in attendance.

From the Pakistani side, apart from General Musharraf and his wife Begum Sehba Musharraf, the guest list will include Pakistan Ambassador to India Ashraf Jehangir Qazi, Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar and other senior officials.

Food will be contemporary all-India cuisine. Special delicacies of Kashmir, fish Amritsari from Punjab, momos from the Northeast and the ada pradaman from Kerala will be served.

President Narayanan will deliver his customary address in the honour of the visiting dignitary in the course of the dinner. It will be a speech that will, in fact, set the tone for the next day's Vajpayee-Musharraf summit.

It is unlikely that Narayanan will touch upon sensitive issues like the Kargil war and the restoration of democracy in Pakistan.

Official sources said the Prime Minister's Office and the Ministry of External Affairs have already submitted a draft text of the speech to Rashtrapati Bhavan. But it is unlikely that Narayanan will go strictly by the draft.

General Musharraf will create history not just by talking peace with Vajpayee, he will be the first Pakistani head of state to stay in Rashtrapati Bhavan in 54 years.

Rashtrapati Bhavan's guest wing comprising two suites -- Dwaraka and Nalanda -- have been spruced up. While the general and his wife will stay in Dwaraka, a dozen of his officials and security personnel will occupy Nalanda.

Originally, the self-contained Dwarka suite was where the viceroys and their families lived. Lord Irwin was its first occupant. In one of his memoirs, Irwin certified that in spite of its size, the Dwaraka mansion was "essentially a liveable in-house."

But after the last Viceroy Lord Mountbatten left, Governor General C Rajagopalachari, the first Indian to occupy the viceroy's suite, felt it was too regal for his taste. So he moved to a more modest set of rooms, which were earlier occupied by the vicereine's lady-in-waiting.

Indo-Pak Summit 2001: The Complete Coverage

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