India-US News and Discussion

James B · Post by **James B** » 27 Nov 2009 17:00

Philip wrote: And as for holding the state banquet in a "tent" and not indoors,why every American including Obama knows that "Indians" live in tents!

PS:Or did he feel that MMS was unworthy to sit at the high table?

Indoors of WH is too small host 320 guests, that's why they had to arrange a big tent outdoors. Don't have to read too much into this.

harbans · Post by **harbans** » 27 Nov 2009 17:03

MMS should have presented a turban to Obowma. Atleast the next time he bows down to Hu, Wen or Abdullah it won't hurt when his head hits the ground. BTW i agree with Sridharji, i doubt China will touch Afghanistan with a barge pole. The US has no choice but to stick with it's options in Afghanistan. Leaving it will cause complete chaos and penultimate Talibanization of Pakistan within 5 years of it.

rkirankr · Post by **rkirankr** » 27 Nov 2009 17:24

We can only hope that this dud visit has put some senses into those people who make decisions, that you cannot outsource your problems to someone else to solve.
They were all enamoured about the seat at the "high table", now get pushed out to "tents".
Atleast now hope they wake up work purely for the national interest and not to curry favour with anyone.

D Roy · Post by **D Roy** » 27 Nov 2009 19:27

Apologies if posted before

Obama's Opportunity With India

amit · Post by **amit** » 27 Nov 2009 20:38

enqyoob wrote:What's wrong with a State visit where there are no public declarations of "breakthroughs"? It's not as if the US and India are at war with each other, hey? The best State Visits are ones where there is just a "chai-biskoot", "frank exchange of views" etc?

5 days ago ppl (incl me) were dreading all the towels thrown in the Joint Ishtatement, and the resulting 3 months of
DupleeCity Sharm Sharm
Ro-Dho thread. Now ppl are that there was NO bowing and dhimmifying.

N^3,

I for one am mighty disappointed.

Remember all the predictions by the experts of how MMS is going to be forced by the Great Man of Peace who sits in the White House to sign CTBT and all the other shitty treaties? And how dhimified MMS is going to jump through the hoola hoop to comply? BRF was almost totally polarised due to the outcry.

I even remember one great expert making the statement: "All is lost!"

Now I wonder what happened? Why didn't the cookie crumble the way these great observers predicted? Were the tea leaves bad? Maybe they were counterfeits made in China?

I suppose this just goes to show that when one makes judgement based on personal preferences/prejudices the tea leaves become worthless.

amit · Post by **amit** » 27 Nov 2009 20:46

rkirankr wrote:We can only hope that this dud visit has put some senses into those people who make decisions, that you cannot outsource your problems to someone else to solve.
They were all enamoured about the seat at the "high table", now get pushed out to "tents".
Atleast now hope they wake up work purely for the national interest and not to curry favour with anyone.

Just curious, why do you call this a dud visit? Are you among those who were expecting that the US Administration would solve all of India's problems?

I think the success or otherwise of the visit should be gauged by the things that were feared would happen but didn't happen. Things like pressure on CTBT, concession for Doha and the upcoming Copenhagen climate talks.

The fact that the US did not put any pressure on these issues, despite the Democrats general dislike of India's POV on each issue, IMO points to either:

a) It has realised that India is too big to armtwist; or
b) It doesn't want to antagonise India and push it out of its camp - that is US want to play for the long term.

I think either of these two outcomes is a net plus for India. The treaties and the nitty gritty can be taken care by the Babus. When the PM of India goes calling on the President of the US of A it's the big picture that's more important. India hasn't gone to Daddy to solve its problems, like Pakistan does.

PS: No offense boss but your tent comment is rather silly. The tent was because the banquet was so large that it would not have fitted in the White House dinning Hall. And I think you should read up a bit on the cost of the tent and how lavishly it was made

Hari Seldon · Post by **Hari Seldon** » 27 Nov 2009 21:23

I for one had apprehensions about the MMS visit.

Am happy this visit was uneventful.

Mort Walker · Post by **Mort Walker** » 27 Nov 2009 22:04

Hari Seldon wrote:I for one had apprehensions about the MMS visit.

Am happy this visit was uneventful.

Hari,

Perhaps this is good after all and allows MMS and the INC to see reality.
The issues discussed were peripheral and the Ombaba administration didn't want to touch the issues of US export control laws and bilateral trade. The Indian side came prepared.

Ombaba may be out of office come 2012 due to continuing high unemployment and he may face a challenger within his party.
Here is a link to US unemployment by county. Actual unemployment rates are much higher than stated.
http://cohort11.americanobserver.net/la ... final.html

Now add high under-employment, that 1 of 4 home owners are financially underwater, and have a high debt burden makes the situation quite miserable in the US. Also all the right-wing nuts who think their guns are going to be taken away are purchasing multiple fire arms makes the US situation quite volatile.

Kanson · Post by **Kanson** » 27 Nov 2009 22:48

Give sometime for Om-baba to deliver. For AfPak he took sometime to get a grip and same could be for others. Even Bush didnt do anything on his first term. It took 4 yrs for him to realize the potential. Eventually OB will...

Lalmohan · Post by **Lalmohan** » 28 Nov 2009 00:44

the visit was on a par with those from france, germany, japan or uk... platitudes and handshakes... no dramatic issues. sign of maturity. not sure why there is so much rona dhona on this issue

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 28 Nov 2009 00:49

af-pak is planned to be at $100b/year. may be MMS is thinking of taking 50% subcontract work, and saving 50% of the money for infra structure for desh.

am i thinking too much crossing the yellow line?

Rudradev · Post by **Rudradev** » 28 Nov 2009 01:50

Hari Seldon wrote:I for one had apprehensions about the MMS visit.

Am happy this visit was uneventful.

Hang in there buddy, the "events" will take a while to materialize, but keep watching that space and they'll show up.

The Manmohan-Maino cabal running our country didn't get where they are by being gratuitously stupid. The furore following the Sharm-el-Shaikh sellout was a shock to them... it brought to the brink of revolt several of their own second-rung party members who presumably haven't been "in on the take" and don't see the point of embracing Amirkhan's equal-equal prescription to the detriment of India.

And even Sharm-el-Shaikh didn't follow too closely on the heels of a pilgrimage to massaland... which would have been a dead giveaway.

It stands to reason that this time they will be even more careful to preserve complete opacity than they were at the time of the Nuclear Deal, or Sharm-el-Shaikh.

The sellout this time will be even less obviously linked to what went down in Washington between the constable and his superiors. Leave no dots to connect, and just to make sure, snowblind the Indian public with a neatly-timed leak of a supposed "report" on a 17-year-old incident at Ayodhya. You can virtually guarantee that no difficult questions will be asked.

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 28 Nov 2009 02:08

Jarita wrote:This is news to me. When did mMS live in queens? What was he upto?

with his son-in-the-law.
http://www.law.nyu.edu/news/BEEBE_FACULTY

Rudradev · Post by **Rudradev** » 28 Nov 2009 02:19

Mort Walker wrote:
Ombaba may be out of office come 2012 due to continuing high unemployment and he may face a challenger within his party.
Here is a link to US unemployment by county. Actual unemployment rates are much higher than stated.
http://cohort11.americanobserver.net/la ... final.html

Now add high under-employment, that 1 of 4 home owners are financially underwater, and have a high debt burden makes the situation quite miserable in the US. Also all the right-wing nuts who think their guns are going to be taken away are purchasing multiple fire arms makes the US situation quite volatile.

Mort,

If Obama screws up massively in Afghanistan as I am confident he will do, the Republican challenge in 2012 may come from a very different direction than the GWB neocon platform.

GWB came in on the heels of Clinton-era prosperity, inspired by Heritage Foundation and PNAC dreams of building a new Pax Americana in the age of hyperpowerdom and affluence. The GOP candidate of 2012 (Palin maybe) will ride instead on the sort of desperation and rage that fueled Reagan's ascent in 1980... resulting from a shockingly deplorable economy, high unemployment and a decade of disastrous wars and foreign policy SNAFUs in America's wake.

What form will the post-neocon GOP take in terms of political philosophy? I believe it will be ultraconservative on social issues, and chiefly isolationist (Fortress America) on foreign policy. Ironically, they are likely to adopt an anti-war platform and call for less multilateral involvement with the rest of the world... which will sell very well among independent voters if Af-Pak goes the way I expect it to go over the next three years. Business interests key to the GOP's fortunes will have to be accommodated, and outsourcing will probably continue... but I do think that the 2012 GOP platform will be strongly anti-immigrant, and will have to at least make a show of clamping down on H1-B quotas.

What's most relevant is that the 2012 GOP will probably be very pro-China... not at all like the neocons who sought to rope India into an Australia-Japan nexus for the containment of China. The isolationist post-neocon Republicans will depend on a powerful China to maintain America's business interests in Asia by stabilizing the East Asian economies, and to cooperate in the revival of the American domestic economy by virtue of their vast holdings of dollars and US T-bills.

As isolationists who want to withdraw from overseas commitments, the post-neocon GOP will eagerly accommodate China's ambitions of suzerainty over Asia, as long as China undertakes to safeguard American economic interests and guarantees that its Pak-pets won't get up to Jihad against the US. Today's GOP may criticize Obama's bowing and scraping before Beijing , but in fact Obama has done the post-neocon Republicans a favour. He has taken the burden of humiliation on himself in acknowledging the rise of China... so that a Republican regime in 2012 won't have to appear servile while essentially continuing his policy of accommodating China.

What all this means for US-India relations, I fear, is that a US-China G2 is on the cards no matter whether the GOP or the Dems win in 2012. So is an eventual US disengagement from the Indian subcontinent and Afghanistan, and a ceding of suzerainty over these regions to the Chinese in their wake. The day of the neocon, the Vulcans, and of the Indo-US "natural-alliance" is quickly coming to an end.

It is time that New Delhi realized this and began a thorough, well-considered process of foreign-policy divestment, so that not all our eggs are in the American basket when that basket abruptly vanishes.

enqyoob · Post by **enqyoob** » 28 Nov 2009 03:24

OTOH, consider the following:
1. US-PRC lovey-dovey is based on cheap Chinese labor to mass-produce American designs, and fat American wallets to buy those items back from PRC. Both these "compatibilities" are disappearing fast, and so is the marriage of War-Malt and Warr Stleet with PLA and the CCP.
2. US circumspection regarding PRC is based on baaaad US experience of trying to get into bissing contests with PRC starting from Korea, on to Vietnam, and most recently to Wrong Way Wong Wei and the EP-6 that came back in little boxes. Likewise, PRC knows that any serious shooting war will cause the US to use all its weapons very fast, causing PRC to return to 1945 levels in short order. And China can't really reach the US as freely due to air and naval power disparity.

Apart from these, what fundamental convergence of interests exists between US and PRC? I don't see any. In everything, the interests conflict. Avoiding all-out war may be high on the list of both, like between indiapakistan. But that's it. And both know that very well.

So US will try its very best to prevent Chinese industry from "breaking out" and becoming a 1-stop Innovation-2-Mass-Distribution hyperpower. As Chinese naval and air power (and space assets) grow rapidly, US will try its best to encircle China with bases and weapons.

Unravelling the Chinese Commies is as easy as the US deciding to call the NoKo bluff, by announcing that the US is in support of Korean unification as short-term and long-term goal, and will support South Korea 400% in that effort. At the same time, "allow" the collapse of TSP - and support Sindh and Balochistan massively. Things may be going there already.

China will try its very best to convert US-affine markets to buy Chinese, and subvert US-affine regimes worldwide. The Monroe Doctrine will come under severe attack.

Africa will become a superpower playground again. China is actually far ahead in Africa relative to US/Poodlestan.

3. China has invested very very heavily in carbon-intensive industry. IOW, they have tied themselves up with 30-year amortization of massive carbon-based plants. The US/Oirope will try to use that against them. By comparison, India is the far more nimble, since India's energy portfolio has remained largely unchanged (60%+ coal) since prehistoric times, and little investment has gone into "modernizing" into carbon-based plants. There is nothing other than laziness stopping India from becoming a modern solar/H2 based economy in short order and breaking free of the oil/CO2 shackles.

4. There is a 3rd massive player in all this: Oirope. Oirope is envious and basically snooty about the US, looks down on India and Africa, but is absolutely terrified of China. If u think unemployment etc are bad in the US, check out Spain. Oirope + Russia will find it imperative to stop Chinese advance. So China is basically facing TWO massive world forces, who can't afford to have China grow much more or eat into their lunches much more.

5. POTUS Obama, IMO, is on the road to success. Yeah, yeah, 3 years or 300 years from now, AfPak will still be FakAp. Only another meteor strike can fix that region, and ppl recognize that. Main objective in AfPak for most Americans was to kill a whole lot of them ******s to avenge 9/11, and that's been done very well, thank u. All Obama has to do is release the death toll estimates among Pakis since 2001, and there will be ticker tape parades in NYC.

6. The Republicans are full of s*** with their Energizer Bunny-type

If McCain-Palin had won in Nov 2008, WW3 might be over by now, and the US renamed "Mao-Zhou Le-Education Plovince". I don't think I am alone in being able to see that basic fact. The war deaths are fairly being blamed on the biss-boor berformance of the Push Administration.

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 28 Nov 2009 03:32

AfPak will still be FakAp.

hope GWB doesn't use this among his tongue slips.. and he may who knows come back for 2012.

harbans · Post by **harbans** » 28 Nov 2009 04:26

Gate crashers Indian connection here:

http://news.rediff.com/report/2009/nov/ ... -india.htm

PS: I don't see how gate crashers broke the law. They were screened by the SS and allowed. Comments on them to serve time in jail are not warranted. The SS is the one that should be held to task. They'd even phoned a TV crew who followed them right up to the White House

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 28 Nov 2009 04:49

Victoria Secret sales must go up now among desi wimmens!

pgbhat · Post by **pgbhat** » 28 Nov 2009 06:40

UPDATE: Guess Who Came To Dinner? ---- Karen Tumulty.

Okay, the checkpoint worked. But why did they then just let this unauthorized couple go on their way? Shouldn't they have been at least a little suspicious that they would try to get in through another gate? (Hint to Secret Service: The fact that they then got out of their car, and did a quick touch-up, suggests that they were not planning to go home and spend the rest of the evening watching TV and doing laundry.)

According to The Times and other reports, the Salahis apparently managed to get in at a pedestrian entrance around the block. (This gets to another difference between this kind of event and a more routine visit; at a social event, you are not issued a little tag to wear around your neck identifying you as being there for an appointment.)

The Washington Post speculated:

A savvy pair of crashers, dressed to the nines, might arrive on foot at the visitors' entrance, announce their names -- then express shock and concern when the security detail at the gate failed to find them on the guest list. On a rainy night like Tuesday, with a crowd of 300-plus arriving, security might have lost track of or granted a modicum of sympathy to a pair who certainly looked as though they belonged there. If their IDs didn't send up any red flags in the screening process, they would be sent through the magnetometers and into the White House.

This does not at all square with my experiences at those magnetometers. I've shown up any number of times when someone hadn't sent the gate the required information--full name, birthdate and Social Security number--and (believe me, I've tried) whining has never gotten me anywhere. Sympathy is not their strong suit; nor should it be.

I'm not the only one has that impression, according to the NYT:

Representative Peter T. King, the ranking Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee, called for a Congressional investigation, saying in an interview Thursday that he was shocked at the lack of security at the White House on Tuesday night. Since 2003, the Secret Service has been part of the Department of Homeland Security.

“Obviously, somebody dropped the ball,” said Mr. King, of New York. “I mean, you're talking about the president of the United States and the vice president and a powerful world leader, the prime minister of India.” The prime minister, Manmohan Singh, was the guest of honor.

Mr. King said he had seen people turned away from similar White House events, including a congressman who brought his daughter instead of his wife, whose name was on the list. He also raised concerns about the Secret Service's assertion that Mr. Obama was safe because all guests passed through metal detectors.

“The fact they went through the magnometer is incidental,” he said. “They could have had anthrax on them. They could have grabbed a knife from the dining room table.”

Is it possible that the couple was cleared in for some other purpose, and by some office other than the Social Office? If that were the case, they would have been on the list to be cleared. But their formal clothes should have set off a red flag of their intended destination in the building.

Read more: http://swampland.blogs.time.com/2009/11 ... z0Y749Q1TR

From CBS
[youtube]DWMPOmmHU2E&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

Malayappan · Post by **Malayappan** » 28 Nov 2009 06:48

Another take on the visit -
PM talks up America by Ashok Malik, The Pioneer

I would read the views as complementing those made above! Read it all!

Gagan · Post by **Gagan** » 28 Nov 2009 07:05

Click on the image to go to the official white house press release page:

President Barack Obama greets Michaele and Tareq Salahi during a receiving line in the Blue Room of the White House before the State Dinner with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of India, Nov. 24, 2009. (Official White House Photo by Samantha Appleton)

This official White House photograph is being made available only for publication by news organizations and/or for personal use printing by the subject(s) of the photograph. The photograph may not be manipulated in any way and may not be used in commercial or political materials, advertisements, emails, products, promotions that in any way suggests approval or endorsement of the President, the First Family, or the White House.

Mort Walker · Post by **Mort Walker** » 28 Nov 2009 07:21

Gagan,

Take a look at the full high resolution photo and see the smile on Ombaba's face with MMS grinning and looking at her from the corner of his eye!

I'm glad he's still a mard.

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 28 Nov 2009 07:30

what about this to talk about security?
http://photos-e.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak ... 8547_n.jpg

Gagan · Post by **Gagan** » 28 Nov 2009 07:36

I did that. My first instinct was that MMSji was looking in her general direction!

But the rim of his glasses prevents a definite identification.

I wonder what all the photographers capture in all those millions of photos they take (but can't publish and keep them for their private collection) at events such as these with world leaders eyeing the dames.

Gagan · Post by **Gagan** » 28 Nov 2009 07:38

Usually at a assembly line of Chief guests, one tends to look at the next incoming person or to his co-host next to him.
Now MMSji is empty here - no guest to shake hands with. It would be natural to assume that he would be looking in the general direction of Ombaba to gauge him or perhaps in this case see more...

Gagan · Post by **Gagan** » 28 Nov 2009 07:40

...and to think the White House cooly released this picture!!!

OMFG

This is outrageous. Maar dala.

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 28 Nov 2009 07:58

even with Indian ambass...
http://photos-g.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak ... 9147_n.jpg

ambass quin haisa hus raha hai?

NRao · Post by **NRao** » 28 Nov 2009 08:11

SaiK wrote:even with Indian ambass...
http://photos-g.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak ... 9147_n.jpg

ambass quin haisa hus raha hai?

That is NOT the Indian Amby!!!!!!!!

NRao · Post by **NRao** » 28 Nov 2009 08:12

But, I think India should hire them to rep India.

She has a sari to putter around in - a red one at that.

munna · Post by **munna** » 28 Nov 2009 08:14

NRao wrote:
SaiK wrote:even with Indian ambass...
http://photos-g.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak ... 9147_n.jpg

ambass quin haisa hus raha hai?
That is NOT the Indian Amby!!!!!!!!

Second that, our amby is Mrs Shankar and not this person.

Anujan · Post by **Anujan** » 28 Nov 2009 08:39

Mort Walker wrote:Gagan,

Take a look at the full high resolution photo and see the smile on Ombaba's face with MMS grinning and looking at her from the corner of his eye!
I'm glad he's still a mard.

Indian PMs were always mards, even Atal checked out Aish

RoyG · Post by **RoyG** » 28 Nov 2009 08:43

wow she is quite the looker....she can crash my party any day lol.

Gagan · Post by **Gagan** » 28 Nov 2009 08:53

Atal ji was the ultimate. The stories of atal ji I've heard are

.

There is one involving the health minister from bihar Dr. C.P.Thakur who used to carry a torchlight in his kurta pocket, and one night he is rumored to discovered something with his torch light.

AnimeshP · Post by **AnimeshP** » 28 Nov 2009 08:58

harbans wrote:Gate crashers Indian connection here:

http://news.rediff.com/report/2009/nov/ ... -india.htm

PS: I don't see how gate crashers broke the law. They were screened by the SS and allowed. Comments on them to serve time in jail are not warranted. The SS is the one that should be held to task. They'd even phoned a TV crew who followed them right up to the White House

Looks like the TFTA SS is slowly losing its so called TFTA-ness....

From the linked article ...

Incidentally, the morning after the dinner, there was a second security lapse, as journalists and their equipment were reportedly allowed into Singh's media conference without X-ray checks, sending India's Special Protection Group -- in charge of the prime minister's security -- into a tizzy.

Journalists were made to leave and were properly checked before re-entering, while the conference room itself was screened thoroughly as well.

Jarita · Post by **Jarita** » 28 Nov 2009 09:02

Ash is in a different league from the gate crasher

amdavadi · Post by **amdavadi** » 28 Nov 2009 11:55

Ash is a RAA agent? check out her left hand....

sum · Post by **sum** » 28 Nov 2009 13:36

Incidentally, the morning after the dinner, there was a second security lapse, as journalists and their equipment were reportedly allowed into Singh's media conference without X-ray checks, sending India's Special Protection Group -- in charge of the prime minister's security -- into a tizzy.

Can anyone even imagine the kind of outrage if a similar thing had happened when a Amriki prez had come over to Desh?

Philip · Post by **Philip** » 28 Nov 2009 13:58

After reading the Pioneer analysis of the visit,there could be some desperation in MMS's words,given that he invested,nay sacrificed, so much of India's foreign policy at the feet of Bush & Co.Going back to what I said about "outsourcing" the subcontinent to China,especially the situ in Af-Pak,China will in turn merely outsource its role in "stabilising" Af-Pak to Pak and the ISI! In other words,the US wants an exit and wants a regional marshal and deputies to contain the fallout from reaching US shores as was done in 9/11.China also taking turns in using rent-boy Pak with Uncle Sam,is the ideal partner for the US,not troublesome India with its irritating moral stand on such petty issues like invading and looting anywhere and anyone globally!.

Dhiman · Post by **Dhiman** » 28 Nov 2009 14:07

sum wrote:
Incidentally, the morning after the dinner, there was a second security lapse, as journalists and their equipment were reportedly allowed into Singh's media conference without X-ray checks, sending India's Special Protection Group -- in charge of the prime minister's security -- into a tizzy.
Can anyone even imagine the kind of outrage if a similar thing had happened when a Amriki prez had come over to Desh?

From http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/new ... 275314.cms:

Indian security officials aghast at White House breach

NEW DELHI: Agencies in charge of VIP security in India are astounded at how two aspiring reality-television stars gatecrashed US President Barack Obama's state dinner for Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Washington and say it is a costly lapse.

"We are glad that it happened in the US. If such a security breach had happened out here in Hyderabad House, or even Vigyan Bhavan, we would have never heard the end of it and heads would have rolled," pointed out a senior protocol officer in charge of VIP security.

"How such a breach in the most important official residence in the world happened is something all of us are very keen to know."

As the US Secret Service begins investigating how Tareq and Michaele Salahi, polo-playing socialites, managed entry into the White House Tuesday when they were not in the official guest list, agencies here say it was a major contravention of protocol.

"From the way they entered after a marine announced their names, it was clear that the White House social officer had not vetted their names or that someone from the White House staff slipped them in," said a senior official.

Showing up about halfway through the guest arrivals, the duo posed for photographs with Vice President Joe Biden, Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, composer AR Rahman, Washington Mayor Adrian Fenty and Arun Singh, the deputy chief of mission at the Indian Embassy in Washington.

The Special Protection Group (SPG) responsible for the protection of the prime minister, has not raised any objection with the Secret Service.

Security and intelligence officials recall how they completely secured the Purana Qila, the ruins of a magnificent 16th century fort, when former president George W Bush addressed Indian people in March 2006.

Around two dozen Indian security officials along with US officials sanitised the entire area and took complete control of the fort 72 hours before Bush's address.

"Those who were invited for the occasion were asked to come in almost an hour earlier and the guest list was gone through with a fine toothcomb," said an intelligence official.

Officials in charge of VIP security believe there have been minor protocol lapses such as vehicular routes during visits of important dignitaries to India but say there has never been an infringement when it has come to an important banquet.

svinayak · Post by **svinayak** » 28 Nov 2009 14:10

Paul Wharton, a friend of the Salahis, tells ABC’s Good Morning America that the couple has had lots of contact lately with Indian officials and has spent a fair amount of time in India. Could that explain why they were at a dinner honoring the Indian PM?

http://blogs.reuters.com/frontrow/2009/ ... own-story/

http://www.politico.com/click/stories/0 ... night.html