WASHINGTON, Aug 11: A suggestion by former American ambassador to iNDIA, Frank G Wisner, that New Delhi and Washington turn the 50th anniversary celebrations of Indian independence to a celebration of democracy, was turned down by the then prime minister P V Narasimha Rao, the New York Times has claimed.``The 50th anniversary was still a couple of years away when Wisner hit on an idea he took to Rao.

If India were to use the occasion as a vehicle for celebrating democracy, Wisner suggested, the US would lend its support and organise events of its own that would hail India's tradition of selecting its governments.``Mr Rao, who once told an interviewer that he would like to be remembered for perfecting the art of what he called `masterly inactivity', was not galvanised.

`'According to an aide to Wisner, Rao, then 74, regarded the envoy balefully, then passed on to other matters,'' the newspaper said. The New York Times quoted the aide as saying, ``It looked as though Rao was saying to himself, what on earth is this fellow talking about?''``Unlike westerners,'' the Times said, ``Indians are not much inclined to celebrate anniversaries of any kind and in any case, for a people who trace their civilization back to 4,000 years, 50 years can seem but a blink in time.''

For Rao, the article said, ``the issue was not so much celebrating democracy as finding ways to hang on to his job, a struggle he lost in the general election of May, 1996. Since then, Indian politics has been a revolving door. As an occasion for a party, the anniversary looks something of a bust.''

However, it said, ``India's seeming lack of enthusiasm is no reason for others not to find their own ways of marking the birth of a nation that was a watershed not only for India but for the world as well.''``India was, after all, the first, and the most populous, of the dozens of countries that broke free from colonialism in the post-war era, and it was, and still is, a bell-weather for free peoples in the poorer parts of the earth.''

It recalled that when Mandela was freed after 27 years in prison, one of his first overseas trips was to India.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.