After the media frenzy caused by the Obamas’ Diwali drop-in on India, it is now the turn of the French leader.
Michelle Obama enchanted Indian audiences by kicking off her shoes to dance to Bollywood music and play hopscotch with disadvantaged Mumbai kids (while Barack displayed the white side of his roots by shuffling his feet on the sidelines). They missed visiting India’s most famous monument ,the Taj Mahal. Well, former supermodel Carla Bruni Sarkozy, sees this has her opportunity to outdo the Obamas.
The French first couple requested a moonlight visit to this monument to love and India cleared out thousands of local tourists to that Carla and Nicholas could kiss privately in front of the white marble mausoleum that was built a hundred years before the French Revolution. Only two photographers were permitted to travel to Agra. DNA reported “Staying at the opulent Oberoi Amarvilas Hotel in Agra, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife Carla Bruni today got a splendid view of the Taj Mahal, which they visited in the evening.”
In other gossip, India media reported that France’s insistence that no Indian security staff taller than 5 feet and 4 inches be deployed near the French President, who is notoriously sensitive about his height.
Substantively, Areva, owned by the French government expects to close a multi-billion deal to nuclear plants to build nuclear plants in Jaitapur, Maharashtra and perhaps one more site. Last week, the site for the plants received environmental clearance – a major hurdle for any infrastructure project in India. An agreement between Areva and India’s Nuclear Power Corporation is likely to be signed during Sarkozy’s visit, said T.P. Seetharam, a top official in India’s external affairs ministry, as reported by the Associated Press.
On his first stop, Sarkozy visited the state-run Indian Space Research Organization , where a joint project with France is developing a satellite to monitor climate change and ocean conditions. French companies are also egotiating to upgrade 51 Mirage-2000 jet fighters of the Indian Air Force. India is also in the market to buy 126 fighter jets, a deal worth $11 billion (where France has a stake), and nearly 200 helicopters worth another $4 billion.
