Protocol Issue Baffles Up Bureaucrats

After The choppers carrying the US President, Mr Bill Clinton, accompanied by daughter, Chelsea, land at the Agra airport on March 22 next, whom would he shake hands with first - the high profile divisional commissioner, Ms Neeta Choudhury or the septugenarian Chief Minister, Mr Ram Prakash Gupta.

The state bureaucracy is in a dilemma. Even though they would prefer Mr Ram Prakash Gupta to receive the US President, the `protocol book' debars both the Chief Minister and Governor from welcoming any Head of State outside the State capital.

The rules clearly state that the Chief Minister and the Governor would welcome the visiting Head of State only in the state capital, while the divisional commissioner along with the mayor, army commander and the police chief would extend the hospitality elsewhere in the state.

 

The Americans may prefer to go by the book. But a section of the state bureaucracy, smitten by the hype created over Mr Clinton's Hyedrabad visit, thinks otherwise. "Why should the state surrender such a godsent opportunity only because the decades - old protocol book speaks otherwise," some feel.

But others are prompt to point out that any devitation from the protocol book may cause embarrassment to the Indian government on the issue of State of State relationship, besides laying a wrong precedent.

"How can the Chief Minister receive the US President in Agra and not the Mauritius President," the officers pointed out while highlighting the fact that Agra was the most sought after jaunt of all the visiting dignitaries.

Some officers at several meetings held so far to decide the protocol issue pointed out as to how the divisional commissioner had received the US First Lady, Ms Hillary Clinton, during her Agra visit a few years back, while the DM had extended the hospitality to the Netherlands Prime Minister on his visit to Agra some time back.

The Minister in Waiting (nominated by the Ministry of External Affairs) was also present on those occasions.

Apparently what seems to have further confused the bureaucracy is the fact that the Chief Minister, at no cost, can reach Taj Khema, the picturesque venue of a global environmental meet, on time to attend it.

Gauging from the fact that the car carrying the US Secretary of State, Ms Madeleine Albright, would be number 23 in the entourage, the CM's car would easily be 150 vehicles behind that of the American President.

However, a suggestion has been mooted that either the Chief Minister should receive the US President and Governor attend the environmental meet or vice-versa.

Apparently the US embassy had sought a guest list of about 60 to 70 members besides the Chief Minister and Governor for the global environmental meet organised by United States.