B
y Smita Prakash
Washington, Nov.25 (ANI): The air of excitement and anticipation
prevailing ahead of the White House State Dinner hosted by President
Barack Obama and US First Lady Michelle Obama for visiting Indian
Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and his wife Gursharan Kaur was
dampened by a blanket ban on televison channels and crew.
Television channel anchors here were laughing in their bulletins about
the whole secrecy element surrounding the event and what could have
the reasons for keeping the media out.
Only celebrity news anchors like Katie Couric of CBS, Fareed Zakaria
of Newsweek and CNN, Brian Williams of NBC and Sanjay Gupta of CNN
made the cut for the high-powered do, but their crews were not
allowed.
Earlier, the White House released the list of expected guests for
Tuesday night''s state dinner.
According to the Washington Post, among the expected guests at the
dinner would be Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani, famed
Hollywood director Steven Speilberg, Gayle King, Dr.Sanjay Gupta and
David Geffen.
Among the others that were expected to attend the White House veggie
garden spoils hosted by President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle
Obama for Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister and
his wife Gursharan Kaur, were Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and
his wife Dr. Jill Biden Congressman Gary Ackerman, Indian-American
hotelier Sant Singh Chatwal, Deputy Chairman of the Indian Planning
Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia, David Axelrod and his wife Susan
Axelrod, Congressman Howard Berman and his wife Jane Berman, Robert O
Blake, Jr., Assistant Secretaryof State for South and Central Asian
Affairs, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, John Brennan, Assistant to
the President for Homeland Security and Deputy National Security
Advisor for Counter-terrorism, Homeland Security Council.
William Burns, Under Secretary for Political Affairs, General James E
Cartwright, Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Senator Bob
Casey, Rajiv Chandrasekaran, Senator Satveer Chaudhry, Energy
Secretary Steven Chu, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Senator
Swati Dandekar, Senator Chris Dodd, White House Chief of Staff Rahm
Emanuel, New York Times journalist Thomas Friedman, Dr. Ashok S
Ganguly, Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner, Michigan Governor
Jennifer Granholm, Attorney General Eric Holder, Senator Daniel Inouye
of Hawaii, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, National Security Adviser
General James Jones, Senator John Kerry, Indian External Affairs
Minister S.M. Krishna, Indian-American author Jhumpa Lahiri, US
Commerce Secretary Gary Locke etc, were also expected to attend.
Kiran Mazumda-Shaw, Congressman Jim McDermott, Indian businessman
Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral
Michael Mullen, Homeland Secretary Janet Napolitano, Indian National
Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan, USIBC president and Pepisico
Chairperson Indra Nooyi, Massachussets Governor Deval Patrick, House
of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, telecommunications and IT
honcho Sam Pitroda and Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao were also
to attend.(ANI)
y Smita Prakash
Washington, Nov.25 (ANI): The air of excitement and anticipation
prevailing ahead of the White House State Dinner hosted by President
Barack Obama and US First Lady Michelle Obama for visiting Indian
Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and his wife Gursharan Kaur was
dampened by a blanket ban on televison channels and crew.
Television channel anchors here were laughing in their bulletins about
the whole secrecy element surrounding the event and what could have
the reasons for keeping the media out.
Only celebrity news anchors like Katie Couric of CBS, Fareed Zakaria
of Newsweek and CNN, Brian Williams of NBC and Sanjay Gupta of CNN
made the cut for the high-powered do, but their crews were not
allowed.
Earlier, the White House released the list of expected guests for
Tuesday night''s state dinner.
According to the Washington Post, among the expected guests at the
dinner would be Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani, famed
Hollywood director Steven Speilberg, Gayle King, Dr.Sanjay Gupta and
David Geffen.
Among the others that were expected to attend the White House veggie
garden spoils hosted by President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle
Obama for Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister and
his wife Gursharan Kaur, were Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and
his wife Dr. Jill Biden Congressman Gary Ackerman, Indian-American
hotelier Sant Singh Chatwal, Deputy Chairman of the Indian Planning
Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia, David Axelrod and his wife Susan
Axelrod, Congressman Howard Berman and his wife Jane Berman, Robert O
Blake, Jr., Assistant Secretaryof State for South and Central Asian
Affairs, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, John Brennan, Assistant to
the President for Homeland Security and Deputy National Security
Advisor for Counter-terrorism, Homeland Security Council.
William Burns, Under Secretary for Political Affairs, General James E
Cartwright, Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Senator Bob
Casey, Rajiv Chandrasekaran, Senator Satveer Chaudhry, Energy
Secretary Steven Chu, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Senator
Swati Dandekar, Senator Chris Dodd, White House Chief of Staff Rahm
Emanuel, New York Times journalist Thomas Friedman, Dr. Ashok S
Ganguly, Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner, Michigan Governor
Jennifer Granholm, Attorney General Eric Holder, Senator Daniel Inouye
of Hawaii, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, National Security Adviser
General James Jones, Senator John Kerry, Indian External Affairs
Minister S.M. Krishna, Indian-American author Jhumpa Lahiri, US
Commerce Secretary Gary Locke etc, were also expected to attend.
Kiran Mazumda-Shaw, Congressman Jim McDermott, Indian businessman
Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral
Michael Mullen, Homeland Secretary Janet Napolitano, Indian National
Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan, USIBC president and Pepisico
Chairperson Indra Nooyi, Massachussets Governor Deval Patrick, House
of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, telecommunications and IT
honcho Sam Pitroda and Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao were also
to attend.(ANI)
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