India hopes to cultivate relationship with Palin

ANI:

An unusual guest who came to meet Indian Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, in New York, left him blushing.

A sense of unease was written large on the Prime Minister's face when Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin came calling upon him.

Wearing a shimmery tight hipster and stylish glasses which has become the most discussed topic in the American press, Palin's first meeting with Dr. Singh was completely open for the press, and went off smoothly.

Palin is popularly known as the hockey mom with lipstick, and has prevented the media from attending her previous meetings with Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai and Colombian President Alvaro Uribe Velez.

Joy Mandal, a photo-journalist who has been covering political events in this part of the world for the past 25 years, said:Dr.Singh is such a quite person,one cannot picture that Mr. Singh would be possibly spending time with a fashion model, but he managed his meeting with the Governor of Alaska very eloquently. Mr.Singh has a reason to meet her today, as she is the Governor of Alaska. Tomorrow, she could be the vice president. Sarah Palin represents grass root conservative values. She has completely turned around the November presidential elections."

K.P. Nayar, the Chief Diplomatic Editor of the Telegraph, who is based in Washington D C for more than two decades, said: "It is in our own interest, it is Important to cultivate her, this is the time to cultivate her because until last year, she didn't have a passport. Last year, was the first time she acquired the passport. Yesterday, for the first time, she met the head of a government or the head of a state. So, she would be grateful that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh gave her some advice, treated her with respect, because the rest of the United States, and much of the world, is treating her with contempt -- that she is the greenhorn, the kind of person who should be a heartbeat away from the US presidency. We should cultivate people who matter in the U.S. politics. We should not make a value judgment."

The Indian Prime Minister knows the indispensable importance of Palin in U.S. politics and it is this acknowledgment which compelled Singh to shelve his shyness and he tried his best to open up to Palin, though the mental compatibility was absent.

Mandal, who took photographs of the meeting, said that the Indian Prime Minister was speechless when Palin chatted with him.

Describing the sequence of events, Mandal said: "Frankly I could not see that Prime Minister Singh was uncomfortable, but I could hear Sarah Palin talking; I could see Dr.Singh's lips moving, but I could not hear his talking."

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It sounds like the Pakistan delegation was more comfortable with meeting Palin. At least the Indians know the importance of keeping good relations with whomever is elected and wanted to get off on the right foot with Palin.

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