Aamir Khan, A.R. Rahman, Viswanathan Anand, Javed Akhtar and his wife Shabana Azmi will be among the prominent guests at Manmohan Singh’s “very private†dinner for Barack Obama this Sunday.
The dinner at the Prime Minister’s 7 Race Course residence was originally planned at Panchvati Hall, within the complex, but was shifted to the sprawling lawns after the first “small†group of guests grew to nearly 80 invitees. When George W. Bush was in India in 2006, Singh had hosted a luncheon at the Taj Palace because the guest list had run up to over 300. But in hindsight, the assessment is that it became a “jamboreeâ€.
Rahman is a hot favourite with the UPA, too, despite the little splodge on his CV over the CWG number he composed. He was recently conferred the Indira Gandhi award for national integration.