The Hindu Business Line : Purposeless gallivanting?

The hoo-ha raised by a wide cross-section of the media over the purported insults suffered by the President, Ms Pratibha Patil, during her visits to Mexico and Brazil, and the supposed gaffe on her part in not bowing before the Mexican and Indian national flags while inspecting the Guard of Honour on her arrival in Mexico, is an exercise in making a mountain of a molehill, understandable only in the context of the competitive craving for maximum viewership and readership. It is also, perhaps, reflective of the not very high esteem in which the intelligentsia holds Ms Patil, considering the somewhat murky speculations that cast a shadow on her nomination and election.

In the eyes of the media, the last minute cancellation of her speech to both Houses of Mexican Parliament and the near-empty Brazilian Senate (with only 15 out of 81 Senators attending) greeting her at the time of her scheduled Address were grievous insults to her and to the country, and her failure to bow when she passed by the Mexican and Indian national flags at the time of Guard of Honour was an egregious goof-up, not befitting a Head of State. None of the stories merited the belabouring they received as if the heavens had fallen.

Such gaffes are common during official or state visits of heads of state or government all over the world. Winston Churchill writes in his memoirs that, when he was the First Lord of the Admiralty, during the ceremonial visit of the British Monarch to the Flagship, he was overcome with consternation when the unfurling of the flag was botched, but King George VI laughed it off and moved on.

It is not also possible to enforce the attendance of the Representatives and Senators to listen to the addresses of foreign dignitaries, though the event might have been arranged with the consent of the presiding officer of the House concerned in whose name the invitation itself might well have been issued.

A country like the US handles the situation delicately and tactfully, by filling the chamber with aides and page boys, giving it the look of a full House. I have myself performed that gap-filling duty when I was a US Congressional Fellow in the 1960s.

Crucial issue

Even so, the absence of 66 out of 81 Senators in Brazil is certainly unusual and does not speak well of the interest the Senators have in India. As regards the boycott of Parliament organised by Mexican Left parties on some domestic issue unrelated to Indian President’s visit, because of which Ms Patil’s speech had to be cancelled, one wishes the Members had shown decency and courtesy enough to suspend their campaign for the duration of the visit, but then such mishaps are occupational hazards.

The more crucial issue is about the purpose of such travels by a President whose office, the whole world knows, is mostly ceremonial with no executive power.

At least, a President like Rajendra Prasad, Radhakrishnan, Zakir Hussein or Mr Abdul Kalam commanded a stature independent of the post they held for the nonce, and their intellect and accomplishments were an attraction in their own right.

Most of the others are choices governed by political expediency, lacking in credentials compelling respect or even attention.

No noticeable benefits are likely to accrue to the country by their visits to various countries. There will be no great loss if they refrain from such purposeless gallivanting.

B. S. RAGHAVAN