No first lady status for Sarkozy’s girl

NEW DELHI: Despite rumours of a February wedding, Europe’s most publicised love affair failed to melt India’s protocol czars. The government, it is learnt, has politely declined to give French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s girlfriend, Carla Bruni, the protocol trimmings of a First Lady during his state visit to India as chief guest on Republic Day.

Bruni is welcome, but only as a member of the delegation, an advance presidential team from France was told.

While official sources sought to draw a distinction between India and Saudi Arabia, which bluntly refused to host the French President’s girlfriend during his January 13 visit to Riyadh, the government here gagged at the prospect of the Sarkozy-Bruni affair hijacking the solemnity of the Republic Day parade.

The rulebook prescribes an elaborate protocol for the parade under which the spouse of the Indian President escorts the spouse of the chief guest to the VVIP enclosure on Rajpath where they sit with the Prime Minister. The rules would have had to be rewritten to accommodate Sarkozy girl Bruni being led by President Pratibha Patil’s husband Devi Singh Shekhawat to her seat in the front row in full view of television cameras, which beam the parade nationwide.

Giving Bruni First Lady status would have also seen her driving up for a red carpet  welcome in the forecourt of Rashtrapati Bhavan and being seated next to Patil at the state banquet.  

After the storm Sarkozy and Bruni kicked up in Egypt and Jordan, where they holidayed together very publicly before the official leg of the visit, the French have apparently accepted Indian reservations about the adverse publicity the couple would have attracted here as well without the legitimacy of a legal tag to their relationship. Now the ball is in the French court. France has still to confirm whether the former supermodel will accompany Sarkozy at all in view of differing cultural sensibilities.

It was a delicate task to get the message across without it becoming a diplomatic incident, especially after the controversy over the cancellation of the multi-crore helicopter deal that was to be inked during the Sarkozy visit. The government has told French authorities that if they want a special programme laid on for Bruni, separate from the rest of the delegation, it would be happy to oblige.