What do APJ Abdul Kalam and Pratibha Patil have in common apart from the ‘President’ titles? Both will be forced to check into guesthouses.
NEW DELHI: What do APJ Abdul Kalam and Pratibha Patil have in common apart from the ‘President’ titles? Both the missile man and the former Rajasthan governor will be forced to check into guesthouses instead of their chosen residences.
While outgoing President Kalam will shift to a small guesthouse in Delhi’s cantonment area for about two months till his allotted house at 10 Rajaji Marg is being renovated, India’s first woman President-Elect Pratibha Patil will have to stay in the special guesthouse of Rashtrapati Bhavan for a few months till her rooms in the Family Wing are readied according to her requirements and taste.
Pratibha, along with her husband and daughters, will stay in the guest wing rooms where top foreign dignitaries like Prince Charles and Lady Diana had once stayed. This wing is solely reserved for foreign dignitaries, but with several state heads preferring hotels to Rashtrapati Bhavan, the rooms have remained vacant of late.
About 22 rooms in the guest wing have been spruced up to function as Madam President’s makeshift residence. Government sources said that this is a routine practice and even Kalam stayed in the President Estate’s Guest House for almost three months while the Family Wing was being tailored to suit his needs.
No changes or alterations are done in the Rashtrapati Bhawan as long as the working President is occupying the office. Hence, all refurbishing work will only begin once Kalam moves out.
Kalam had converted one of the drawing rooms into a conference hall with huge projectors installed in it. Sources indicated that Pratibha may want to convert the conference hall into a drawing room again. “She may prefer different draperies, carpets, upholstery and crockery or even an altogether new setting. Besides, a fresh coat of paint and repair work would also be required in the rooms,” said an official.
Pratibha will be sworn in as the 12th President in the Central Hall of Parliament House on Wednesday after having swept through one of the murkiest battles for the top office.
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