Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani was advised by officials in his delegation to wriggle out of a meeting with French Minister for Transportation Gilles de Robein, scheduled for 8.30 am this morning. Jet lag and tiredness were cited as reasons for cancelling the meeting. But the real reason was that India did not want to discuss the uncomfortable issue of Airbus aircraft deal. With both Indian Airlines and Air-India submitting proposals for purchase of aircraft for their fleet, two of the world’s largest aircraft manufacturers Boeing and Airbus (made by a French consortium) had been wooing the government. The Indian government had still not cleared the purchase and did not want to get into an embarrassing meeting with the transportation minister where the Airbus deal was bound to come up. So the easy way out was to cancel the meeting, which anyway had been put into the DPM’s schedule at the last minute, on the request of the French Transport Minister.Nothing official about RSS functionDeputy PM L.K. Advani attending a civic reception and dinner organised by a private organisation, ‘Friends of India Society International’, has raised several eyebrows in Paris. An organisation, believed to have links with RSS, managed a coup of sorts when it organised the function by keeping the Indian embassy in Paris out of the picture and dealing directly with Advani’s office. The embassy here got to know only when it received a message from Delhi, saying they should not organise anything for that night as Advani was attending another function. The organisation, which organises Rath Yatras in Paris, is known to have become active after BJP came to power at the Centre. However, in charge of the organisation Madhu Suman Sukhwal, a close friend of HRD Minister Murli Manohar Joshi, says, ‘‘We are a private organisation promoting Indo-French relations. We are not political.’’
