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Pope gets a low-key reception

Josy Joseph in New Delhi

The President, prime minister and other high-ranking officials of Indian protocol were missing. Missing also was the customary kiss of the land as Pope John Paul II alighted from the MD-11 aircraft. But if the latter reflected the state of health of the head of the Roman Catholic Church, the former seemed to speak of the state of the Indian polity.

The Pope was received by Minister of State for External Affairs Ajit Kumar Panja, possibly the lowest-ranking government representative who could have received a visiting head of state. During the Pope's earlier visit in 1986, President Zail Singh and Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had both gone to the airport to receive him.

In 1986, the Pope travelled extensively all over the country, from the North-East to the Southern tip, and met, among others, Sonia Gandhi, then only the wife of the young prime minister.

The formal meeting of the present Congress president with the Pope took place on the Rashtrapati Bhawan lawns. Sonia Gandhi was accompanied by her husband.

This time, sources said, requests from her office to the Catholic Bishops Conference of India for a meeting, which were routed to the external affairs ministry and the Vatican's embassy, have not been approved. The disapproval is in keeping with a papal tradition: A visiting pope meets none other than the seniormost officials of the State. No opposition leaders, no fighting rebels.

Though there was no official explanation for the absence of the President, the prime minister and even the external affairs minister from the airport, there were enough officials in government circles who speculated that it was reflective of the nature of the present government. But ever since President K R Narayanan took over, he has never travelled to the airport to receive any visiting head of state.

The Pope's visit may also prove a dampener for the die-hard Mother Teresa fans, as no fresh ground is expected to be broken in her elevation to sainthood. The Pope will not even be visiting the Mother's city, despite the fact that he had a very special liking for the founder of the Missionaries of Charity.

Travelling to Delhi from Calcutta instead is Sister Nirmala, the low-profile successor of Mother Teresa, and her senior colleagues.

But several high-profile leaders of the Church in Asia will be absent from the Delhi meet, where the Bishops of Asia are to attend the closing session of their special synod. Most notable among the absentees is the apostolic administrator of Dili, Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo, the hero of East Timor's independence struggle who won the Nobel prize for peace last year.

The Pope's Visit

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