Chandan Mitra/Washington
The Pioneer
Posted on
TitlAtal wraps up US visit with flourish Author: Chandan Mitra/Washington Publication: The Pioneer DatSeptember 18, 2000 Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee rounded off his acclaimed visit to the United States late Saturday evening with vintage flourish. Addressing a hugely-attended public reception by the Indian American Community at the Constitution Hall in Washington DC, Mr Vajpayee roused the faithful and renewed his pledge to lead India towards a new dawn and take Indo-US relations to hitherto unscaled heights. The Prime Minister confounded Doubting Thomases about the state of his health by speaking extempore for 40 minutes, peppering his comments with characteristic doses of humour and sarcasm. He drew almost non-stop applause from some 2500 Indian Americans and the auditorium reverberated with frequent zindabads. It was vintage Vajpayee and he spoke as if he were addressing an election rally. Although he delivered his speech seated, Mr Vajpayee looked substantially better than he had at previous public appearances. In fact, earlier in the day, he spoke at a reception hosted by Ambassador Naresh Chandra standing at the podium. After he read out the prepared text in English, Mr Vajpayee folded his spectacles, put a hand on the microphone and said, "Ab main do shabd Hindi mein kehna chahunga." The entire audience rose to its feet and clapped thunderously. Thereafter, Mr Vajpayee was a transformed man; it was as if somebody had switched on a charge button. As Mr Jaswant Singh rightly commented in his speech to the evening reception, this visit of Mr Vajpayee has been a saga in personal courage, given the state of his health. He is obviously suffering from acute pain in his knees and experiencing immense difficulty in walking. However, speculation in the media about his concentration lapses or shaking hands proved to be entirely unwarranted. It was as if to reply to doomsday prophets in the media that the Prime Minister spoke with astonishing vigour at the reception. In fact, throughout the visit, Mr Vajpayee spoke with characteristic flourish whenever he departed from the prepared text. Saturday evening, for instance, he was drawn into an impromptu debate on the language issue when a lone voice in the audience yelled that he should speak in English. Digressing for nearly 10 minutes, Mr Vajpayee outlined with humour and anecdotes why he would continue speaking in Hindi. "Everybody should speak in the language in which they are most comfortable. I speak better in Hindi, he said and took a dig at Jaswant Singh saying for his colleague, "angrezi ki baat hi kuchh aur hai". As an embarrassed Jaswant Singh muttered a protest, the audience rolled over with laughter. The Prime Minister silenced those who said they did not understand Hindi by saying that some day if a Tamil-speaker led an Indian delegation to the UN, he should speak in Tamil and make the world listen. While regaling the audience, many of whom had travelled huge distances to hear him speak, the Prime Minister also made major, substantive observations. He referred to international demands that India should now talk to Pakistan again. "Kis baare mein baat karein? Mausam ke? Ya biwi-bachchon ke haal-chaal poochhein? (What should we talk about? The weather? Or, about the wife and kids?), Mr Vajpayee asked. He made it plain that there was no question of talks with Islamabad till its sponsorship of cross-border terrorism ended. The Prime Minister's robust assertion that Kashmir is and shall remain an integral part of India, come what may, prompted a standing ovation and prolonged applause from the crowd. Similarly, each time he referred to his decision to go ahead with the nuclear tests without worrying about their international fallout, he was cheered lustily. Clearly, Mr Vajpayee was speaking to the faithful and he was in his element. His tour-de-force on Saturday evening suggested that Mr Vajpayee is immensely relieved that his most high-profile foreign visit since assuming office has been a thundering success. President Bill Clinton's personal interest in ensuring a successful visit and the competitive wooing by presidential aspirants Al Gore and George Bush Jr (no doubt with an eye to the Indian American vote in the forthcoming election) added more flavour. With just the ceremonial banquet to attend on Sunday evening before he leaves for Frankfurt en route to New Delhi, Mr Vajpayee must be asking in quiet satisfaction. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Overseas Friends of the BJP (USA) .............. Voic(718) 271-0453 54-15, 108th St. ................................. Fax: (718) 271-1906 Corona, NY 11368............................ WWW: http://www.ofbjp.org BJP's Websithttp://www.bjp.org Worldwide Friends of the BJ http://www.ofbjp.org/fob
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