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Strategies & Market Trends : India Coffee House -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mohan Marette who wrote (9419)	11/6/1999 5:20:00 PM
From: Mohan Marette	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 12475

Red carpet welcome accorded to Pope New Delhi: Pope John Paul II, the temporal head of Vatican and supreme spiritual leader of the Catholics, formally began his two day State visit to India with a red carpet welcome at the Rashtrapati Bhavan here on Saturday morning. The pontiff, who was escorted to the saluting dais by the President's body guards, was received by President K R Narayanan, First Lady Usha Narayanan, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh and Minister of State for External Affairs Ajit Panja, at a brief but impressive ceremony, at the majestic forecourt. Dressed in his traditional white cassock, white skull cap and a golden cross hanging across his chest, the Pope shook hands with dignitaries and stood with them as scores of lensmen, both from the national and international media, clicked away the historic moment. This is the second visit by the pontiff to India since 1986. A 21-gun salute heralded the arrival of the 79-year old Pope, who had to be helped out of his limousine. He was accompanied by Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Angelo Sadno and the Holy Seer?s envoy to India Lorenzo Baldisseri. The pontiff, who is reportedly not in the best of his health, bowed his head as the military band played the national anthems of the Holy See and India. Thereafter, with the help of a walking stick, he treaded slowly on the red carpet towards personnel of the three wings of the armed forces to receive a guard of honour, but the tired looking pontiff returned to the dais halfway through the ceremony. He was introduced to top dignitaries present on the occasion including Home Minister L K Advani, leader of Opposition Sonia Gandhi, Lok Sabha Speaker G M C Balayogi, Defence Minister George Fernandes, leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Manmohan Singh, Chief of Army Staff Gen V P Malik, Chief Election Commissioner M S Gill and Delhi Lt Governor Vijai Kapoor. deccan.com