If the words spoken at a public function by leaders of Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) are anything to go by a thaw in the strained relations between the two seems very much in the air. The closing ceremony of the Pune International Film Festival (PIFF) saw an uncharacteristic camaraderie between the leaders of the two parties, with one leader after the other trying to outdo his counterpart by praising each other’s achievements in their speeches. Add to that the body language on the leaders and one wouldn’t guess that they have been at each other’s throats for an entire year.

Along with chief minister Ashok Chavan and cultural minister Harshawardhan Patil, NCP leaders Praful Patel and Dilip Walse-Patil were among those present for the function.

Union minister for civil aviation Praful Patel started off the `pat each other on the back’ trend by lauding Kalmadi for his Commonwealth Youth Games success. “I felt a sense of responsibility to attend the function on my friend’s request.Events like PIFF, Pune Festival, Commonwealth Youth Games are a great success in which the spirit of this city is captured,” Patel said. Kalmadi later corroborated this saying his friend had come all the way from Delhi only for 10 minutes to attend the ceremony on his request.

Walse- Patil started off by talking about the changing image of the city from a pensioners’ paradise to a leading destination in IT, automobile and culture and didn’t wait too long before he started praising Kalmadi. “Whenever the word international comes up in the context of Pune, it’s the name of Suresh Kalmadi that comes to fore,” he said.

Given the open rift between Kalmadi and NCP leader and district guardian minister Ajit Pawar over various developmental issues related to city, the tenor of these statements by the senior NCP leaders raised many an eyebrows at the gathering.

Earlier, Kalmadi in his speech was all praise for Walse- Patil and congratulated him for being made the state finance minister which he said was a promotion from being the energy minister. Kalmadi also thanked Praful Patel for arranging a flight for him to reach Pune ahead of the function.