The Queen of England Elizabeth II received President Pratibha Patil and her husband Devisingh Shekhawat at the Windsor Castle here today with all traditional pomp and pageantry associated with the English royalty.
President Patil has been accorded an extraordinary honour by the Queen in arranging for her stay at the Windsor Castle. She becomes the first non-royal to be put up at the Castle during her visit to UK where she arrived yesterday.
The President accompanied by her husband and escorted by Prince Charles- the eldest son of Britain’s ruling monarch Queen Elizabeth II- and his wife Camilla, and Union Minister of State for Human Resources Development Minister D Purandareshwari and Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao arrived to a 21-gun salute with the Union Jack and the Indian Tricolour fluttering all along the road leading to the castle.
Hundreds of people carrying the Tricolour and Union Jack lined up the main cobbled street of the town, 40 km off London to witness this feat, now rarely held.
The India’s first couple was received on a covered road outside Windsor station by the Queen and her husband Prince Philip from where all of them climbed on to five horse-driven carriages to ride to the 900-year-old Windsor Castle. Patil and the Queen occupied the first carriage drawn by six white horses, followed by the two spouses in a carriage pulled by four chestnut-coloured horses. Three more horse drawn carriages carried Prince Charles, Camila, Minister of State for Human Resource Development Daggubati Purandeswari, Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao and other senior Indian and British officials.
This was followed by a spectacular march past by the Mounted Band of the Blues and Royals, a military band on horseback, cannons and gun carriages from the King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery.
The President gifted the Queen an 83-year-old Kashmiri carpet and a shawl. The Queen then showed Patil a selection of Indian items from the Royal collection, including a yarn shawl given by Mahatma Gandhi to her as a wedding present in 1947. The shawl was spun by Gandhi himself and contains the words ‘Jai Hind’.
