Pak National Day celebrations: Warm evening, cool vibes, and some diplomatic balancing

A rather subdued celebration:

The Pakistan National Day celebrations

held at the

Pakistani High Commission

in Delhi recently were rather subdued compared to the newsworthy attendance last year. With singer Shafqat Amanat Ali present (who was still battling the ‘anthem controversy’) and the victorious Pak women’s cricket team fresh from their Delhi fashion week stint, last year’s ceremony had some ‘star power’. This year was a far quieter affair – even the chief guest, MJ Akbar, MoS for External Affairs, stayed but briefly and spoke little.

MJ Akbar, MoS for External Affairs and Abdul Basit,

Pakistan’s High Commissioner

(BCCL)

(L-R) Syed Haider Shah, Deputy High Commissioner, Pakistan High Commission, his wife Pulwasha and Mani Shankar Aiyar (BCCL)


‘Balancing heat and cold’: The gathering was large and with so many people milling about, enjoying the specially-prepared gushtaba and kebabs, High Commissioner AbdulBasit was a hard one to pin down. He was asked if he’d watched 'Ae Dil Hai Mushkil', which ran into some very troubled waters with Pak actor Fawad Khan being cast in it. “We caught it on TV, I think,” he said, looking at his wife Summiya for the details, "But even then, I couldn’t watch it from beginning to end. I watched parts of it.” And what did he think of the controversy it ran into after the Uri attack? “Oh, these are ups and downs in relations between the two countries, and we hope they’re resolved," he said airily. Senior Hurriyat leader Abdul Ghani Bhat, when asked if the unusual warmth in Delhi was bothering him after the cooler Kashmiri climes, said rather poetically, "Kashmiris have learnt the art of balancing heat and cold."

Hurriyat leader Abdul Ghani Bhat (L) and V Namgyel, the Bhutanese ambassador (BCCL)

Dr Ahmed Al Banna, the UAE’s ambassador and Summiya Basit (BCCL)

(R) Hatem Tageldin, ambassador of Egypt, with his wife Dalia Abdel (BCCL)


Strange weather: Diplomats and defence attachés of various countries were in attendance as usual, and the business of political talk seemed to have been handled in the day. Among the topics of discussion was the freak weather – that night was uncommonly warm for March, and even the desis present were sweating. Friederike Tschampa, first counsellor, head of political affairs in the delegation of the European Union, said that she obviously did not think the Indian winter was very cold. She said, "I’ve been asking people lately when the swimming pools are going to open, and they keep quizzically asking me why would they – it’s still winter. For me, this is summer!" Dr Ahmed Al Banna, the UAE’s ambassador, said that even though Dubai was far worse than Delhi in the weather department, you hardly felt the summer in the modern, largely air-conditioned interiors in the city. "I feel the summer in London and Paris, but not in Dubai!" he said, praising his city.

RS Jaura and Abdul Basit, Pakistan’s High Commissioner (BCCL)

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