Washington Post
September 18, 2000
At This Dinner, Harmony Is Served
India and America clinked glasses in their new whirlwind friendship at an elaborate and exotic state dinner at the White House last night as Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee profusely praised Bill and Hillary Clinton—and also Christopher Columbus, “who set sail for India but landed in America. I wonder where we would be if he actually reached India.”
The line got a big laugh from the nearly 700 assorted political, business and entertainment glitterati lucky enough to snag one of the coveted seats in what was by far the largest—and possibly last—such event of the Clinton administration. For this part, the president quipped in his pre-dinner toast that Vajpayee, “when he’s not writing Hindi poetry, actually likes to read novels by John Grisham. I am actually related to the Grishams, but all Grishams with money are distant relatives.” Another laugh. And thus the leaders of the world’s largest democracies bonded in that human way that can send a ray of hope into the vast threat posed by the presence of nuclear weapons on the subcontinent and the ongoing dispute between India and Pakistan over Kashmir.
The threat was certainly on the minds of many guests last night, underlying a general atmosphere of brotherly jollity in the tented palace of gold, pomegranate and more gold on the South Lawn. “I think the threat of nuclear annihilation has been played down during this visit,” said Indian author Ved Mehta, one of the scores of prominent Indians and Indian Americans on the scene. “India cannot fight mosquitoes—what will they do with nuclear bombs?” said model and political-environmental activist Christie Brinkley, dressed in drop-diamond earrings and body-clinging beige dress. “It would be great if India and Pakistan could find friendship like this and save us from nuclear destruction.”
As she spoke before clicking cameras at the White House’s east guest entrance, her husband, architect Peter Cook, stood by solicitously, his unmoving right hand firmly planted upon the exact epicenter of her behind. Holocaust survivor and author Elie Wiesel said he thought both India and Pakistan would accept disarmament “if enough pressure is brought to bear on each. Nuclear proliferation is the greatest threat of the century.” New Age guru Deepak Chopra agreed. “We have no choice,” he said. “If we go the way of the predator with nuclear weapons, we risk extinction.”
Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) had a positive slant on the matter, expressed with his usual gentle eloquence: “Gandhi gave us the way of nonviolence,” he said. “India should show us the same way now.”…
