NEW DELHI — It's rare to see the president of the United States without shoes, but that's just how the world saw President Barack Obama on a trip to the site where Indian independence leader Mohandas K. Gandhi was cremated.
Obama's wife, Michelle, also removed her shoes. That is the custom for entering Raj Ghat, a sunken grass courtyard memorial to Gandhi. The Obamas, in their stockinged feet, helped lay a large white wreath on a flower-covered tablet in front of an eternal flame. Heads bowed, they observed a moment of silence before tossing flower petals onto the platform.
It was the second time the Obamas had paid respects to Gandhi during their first official visit to India. In Mumbai on Saturday, the coupled visited a home in a museum where Gandhi once lived.
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There was high drama as Obama sat down for a meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Obama's chief spokesman threatened to pull the president out of the meeting after Indian officials cut the previously agreed upon number of White House reporters who would be allowed in from eight to five.
U.S. officials had lobbied unsuccessfully for the "White House 8," as the group came to be known, until press secretary Robert Gibbs stepped in. He took to the steps of Hyderabad House, the sprawling palace that India uses for some major events, and kept repeating loudly that he would pull Obama from the meeting to protest India's exclusion of some U.S. reporters.
At one point, Gibbs lodged his foot in the front door and asked the Indian security officials who were shoving it closed whether they were going to break his foot. More conflict and angry words followed, but the Indians eventually took Gibbs' threat seriously. All eight reporters were allowed inside the meeting — for all of about one minute.
Local reporters said their White House counterparts were being treated that way because Indian journalists suffered through similar treatment when Singh visited the White House last year.
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Twenty-four hours after they boogied with children, the Obamas were still stars of Indian TV and newspapers.
Footage of the pair joining colorfully dressed Mumbai schoolchildren in a celebration of Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, ran seemingly nonstop on some channels, complete with expert commentary.
The message to Obama: Sorry Mr. President, but your wife is winning this competition hands down.
New Delhi's "Mail Today" even scored the dance using a large photo with inserts pointing to the couple's legs and hips.
Mrs. Obama was judged to have a "natural sense of rhythm (and) undoubtedly enjoys shaking a leg." By contrast, the paper said her husband "looks lost on the dance floor." The president, it said, "appears to be trying to copy Michelle, but is not confident ... His leg and hip movements lack grace."
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