With India debating protocol of French president visiting with his girlfriend, Mira Kamdar suggests a novel solution
GORDON Brown has just returned from a highly publicised trip to India. Highly publicised, that is, in the UK. In Britain, the press dutifully reported the Prime Minister's honorary degree from Delhi University and his proposal that India should have
a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council.
But in India itself, the media have been more concerned with the forthcoming visit of Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, and his new lady friend, Carla Bruni. So much so that yesterday Bruni was reported in the French press as saying that she might rule herself out of the visit in order to avoid protocol problems.
Ever since Sarkozy took himself off his country's most-eligible-bachelor list by publicly acknowledging his affair with Bruni, the supermodel-turned-pop-musician, during a romantic trip to Euro Disney, he has run into trouble.
His ratings have dipped below 50 per cent for the first time. Older French citizens don't find the public spectacle of their leader in love very amusing. Abroad, Egyptian lawmakers were so exercised over the prospect of the French head of state sharing a bed with his girlfriend that several vented their disapproval on the floor of the parliament.
Likewise, India is all in a quandary over how to handle protocol during Sarkozy's impending visit to the subcontinent as the guest of honour at the country's Republic Day celebrations on 26 January.
Should the first girlfriend have her own motorcade, as a first lady would?
Meanwhile, the same hard-right Hindu groups that protest Valentine's Day as a decadent western holiday have warned that if Sarkozy arrives with his girlfriend in tow, they'll be out in the streets to welcome him.
This controversy has threatened to cast a pall over a much-heralded summit between two of the world's great democracies.
With lucrative deals at stake for the big-ticket products that drive the French economy – military hardware, nuclear power plants and Airbus planes – France has a strong interest in a successful summit in India.
So, as rumours fly of secret marriage ceremonies either already concluded or in the works, could the trouble brewing in India over the French president's very public love life be behind the rush to have the couple legally wed?
The news in Sarkozy's favoured media outlet, the Journal du Dimanche, that the couple plan to marry touched off a flurry of fevered speculation on when the happy event might occur. The couple exchanged significant tokens of their mutual affection: he offered her a heart-shaped pink diamond ring by Dior, she offered him a Swiss watch.
It's "serious", the smitten president admitted. But he refused, even under direct questioning by reporters, to reveal a date. "You'll probably find out after it's happened," he taunted. Rumour has it the couple have set 8 or 9 February for the wedding. Others say that Sarkozy has already outsmarted the media by secretly marrying in the Elysée Palace, even as he was dodging wedding questions.
If that is true, then Sarkozy missed the romantic opportunity of a lifetime. If the couple sizzled for cameras with Luxor and Petra as the backdrop, just imagine how hot things could get at the most romantic spot on Earth, the Taj Mahal.
And, given the current rage for all things Bollywood in France, a lavish Indian wedding would be fitting. Bruni's own life closely resembles any number of Bollywood stars who have made the transition from model to actress. A comely brunette who sings is perfect for a Bollywood makeover.
The Indian government will be nothing if not relieved to see the first girlfriend made a wife (if she turns up). As one of India's leading daily newspapers, the Indian Express, spelled it out, lest anyone be confused, "a girlfriend is not a wife or spouse". Once wed, all protocol worries about the French delegation would simply disappear.
Despite the sometimes downright pornographic on-screen writhing of Bollywood starlets, India is still a deeply conservative society. Divorce is anathema. (Sarkozy is now twice divorced.) And while mistresses abound among the privileged classes, they do not strut publicly by their power-mates' sides. Kissing and fondling in public, even by spouses, is taboo.
In this respect, India more resembles the France with which Sarkozy wants to make a clean break than the current one. Most Indians, as it seems many French, would prefer not to shed the "hypocrisy" Sarkozy laments on the part of his predecessors (read: the former French president François Mitterrand, who had a child with his mistress about whom the public knew nothing until the man's funeral).
Sarkozy, of all people, should know that a large part of the gravitas of office derives from pomp and circumstance. Statecraft is a realm where appearances are meant to be deceiving. When Sarkozy, who otherwise has such finely-tuned media instincts, protests that he's no different from any other man, he comes dangerously close to confusing the office and the person of the president.
Most French people could only dream of an exotic wedding in India. Sarkozy could make that dream come true. If he really is as head-over-heels in love with Bruni as he claims, and plans to marry her imminently, why not take advantage of his upcoming trip to India and make this a wedding to remember?
He could meet his bride seated majestically on the caparison of an elaborately decorated elephant, and she would look ravishing swathed and bejewelled in Indian finery. The "bling-bling" president, as Sarkozy has been dubbed, can wear all the gold he wants and heap yet more diamonds on his bride.
The cameras would roll, Indians would smile and France would be treated to a Bollywood spectacle beyond its wildest dreams. And if it's too late for the wedding, there's always the reception.
• Mira Kamdar is the author of Planet India: The Turbulent Rise of the Largest Democracy. Copyright: Project Syndicate/The Asia Society, 2008
The full article contains 1021 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
