Where the mind is without fear...,” intoned Kabir Bedi, in his characteristically deep voice. He then added that he did not write those lines himself, although he wished he had. The comment drew a titter from the 2,700-strong crowd that had gathered at the Lincoln Centre’s Avery Hall at 5.30 (Eastern) on Sunday for the event that Bedi was anchoring — the inauguration of the four-day Incredible India@60 extravaganza.

This was India projecting its soft power with all the resources — financial and cultural — at its command. As six fully wrapped buses and 150 taxis plied New York’s avenues, dressed up in the colours and scenes of ‘Incredible India’, and as large posters of Kathakali dancers stared down at pedestrians on the street, inside the hall classical dancers from six major dance traditions of the country were setting the stage alight in a visually impressive display choreographed by renowned dancer, Madhavi Mudgal.

The seriousness with which the government took this event was made unequivocally clear by the attendance of four Union ministers at the Avery Fisher Hall function. Besides Pranab Mukherjee, Union minister of External Affairs, who was the chief guest for the evening, there was Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, Minister of Trade and Commerce, Kamal Nath, and Minister for Overseas Indian Affairs, Vayalar Ravi.

Apart from them, there was the deputy chairman of the Planning Commission, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, and chief ministers Tarun Gogoi and Pawan Kumar Chamling, as well as India’s ambassador to the US, Ronen Sen. There would have been a fifth minister here if the Sethusamudram controversy had not raised its head. Union Tourism Minister Ambika Soni’s absence was of course conspicuous, but her contribution to the event was warmly commended.

... contd.