Romantic Bollywood songs diplomacy to woo Indians by Chinese

BEIJING - China tried to woo India by playing old Bollywood songs and serving vegetarian food for President Pratibha Devisingh Patil during the state banquet hosted in her honour by her Chinese counterpart, Hu Jintao here on Thursday.

Bollywood songs like ‘Gore Gore O Banke Chhore..’ of the film ‘Samadhi’ (1972) and ‘Roja jaaaneman’ of the film ‘Roja’ (1992) were played by the band of People’s Liberation Army (PLA) as part of the five Indian songs it presented before the distinguished Indian guests.

The choice of Hindi songs by the Chinese came as a pleasant surprise to the Indian delegates here.

Indian Minister of Food Processing and Industries Subodh Kant Sahay, MPs Raghuvansh Prasad Singh and Ramdas Agarwal and Chinese State Councillor Dai Bingguo were among the dignitaries, who attended the banquet.

The banquet was held at the Great Hall of the People, and the dignitaries were served with an elaborate cuisine, including chicken soup with bean curd flakes, roasted mutton chop with curry and codfish with tomato sauce.

President Patil preferred vegetarian food over the non-vegetarian menu.resident Patil is the first Indian head of state to visit China in a decade, and will be in the country till May 31.

Earlier in the day, she had bilateral meetings with Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, Chairman of the National People’s Congress Wu Bangguo and President Hu Jintao.

During theses interactions, held to mark the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries, the Indian and Chinese sides reportedly discussed several issues of bilateral interest to the two countries.

Official sources said that issues over which the two countries have differences were also discussed. By Praful Kumar Singh (ANI)