Politics as usual in India’s Arafat delegation

The Statesman: "Mrs Sonia Gandhi wanted to go but couldn’t because of protocol. The BJP was asked to name its leader, but couldn’t decide who to send. And Mr Lalu Prasad is going after obtaining a court clearance to be out of the country. India’s official delegation for Yasser Arafat’s funeral is politics as usual.
The Congress president and UPA chairperson, Mrs Sonia Gandhi, “opted out” of the official delegation leaving tonight for Cairo to attend the funeral of the Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, because of “logistical problems,” officials said. The official Indian delegation will be led by the external affairs minister, Mr Natwar Singh, who will personally hand over a letter from Mrs Gandhi to Mr Arafat’s widow, Suha. While nobody would admit as much, Mrs Gandhi’s presence as part of an official delegation to a formal ceremony would have caused some embarrassing protocol “difficulties”, because she holds no official position in the government. Going as leader of the Congress would have meant being lower in the protocol rung than the external affairs minister, who leads the delegation.

There will be no member from the BJP, the principal opposition party, in the official delegation, because BJP leaders could not nominate a member to represent them. The leaders of the Opposition in both the Rajya Sabha (Mr Jaswant Singh) and the Lok Sabha (Mr LK Advani) were asked by the MEA to nominate a member for the delegation.

However, the railway minister and RJD leader, Mr Lalu Prasad, will be part of India’s official delegation. He was permitted by a CBI court today to leave the country to attend Mr Arafat’s funeral. Also in the delegation are the parliamentary affairs minister, Mr Ghulam Nabi Azad, and CPI(M) Politburo member, Mr Sitaram Yechuri. The minister of state for external affairs, Mr E Ahamed, who is in Jeddah, is likely to join the team in Cairo"