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UP CM, governor undecided over receiving Clinton

Sharat Pradhan in Lucknow

The UP chief minister isn't sure whether he ought to receive Clinton at Agra

To receive or not to receive. That is the question Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Ram Prakash Gupta is to answer. Though quite impervious to the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Ram Prakash Gupta isn't sure whether he ought to be there for the four hours that US President Bill Clinton visits Agra on March 22.

While the laid-back Gupta couldn't care less, a section of the bureaucracy was trying to persuade him to cut short his holiday in the Corbett National Park and meet Clinton in Agra.

But other bureaucrats were against the idea, putting even Governor Suraj Bhan in a spot.

"We believe in going strictly by the Blue Book, which clearly lays down that the chief minister and governor should only meet a foreign head of state visiting the state capital, " said a senior government official.

According to him, "When a head of government visits a city other than the capital of that state, he has to be formally received by the divisional commissioner in his capacity as the key representative of the state government in that area."

The practice has been religiously followed in the past. Even when US First Lady Hillary Clinton paid a visit to Agra along together with her daughter Chelsea in 1995, it was the then divisional commissioner Naresh Dayal who received them.

The official explained the logic behind the protocol: "If today you have the chief minister standing in attendance to the US President, the precedent will have to be followed even when a head of a smaller nation arrives there tomorrow."

In any case, this section of the bureaucracy is also upset with the behaviour of the US officials who are giving the final touches to the President's brief stay in Agra where, besides going round the Taj Mahal, Clinton is also to address a global meet on the environment.

Some officials close to the chief minister had failed to get the US bureaucracy's okay to have Gupta seated next to Clinton during that address.

All that the mandarins could manage was to have the governor and chief minister included in the guest list for the environment meet. However, the bureaucrats opposed to the idea sought to impress upon the chief minister and governor that they ought to shun this invitation that entitled them to be two of 300 guests invited by White House to the occasion.

"Surely, that would amount to undermining the status and dignity of the office held by them," a senior bureaucrat said.

But the chief minister, true to his reputation, is yet to decide what he will do -- if anything at all.

CLINTON VISITS INDIA : The complete coverage

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