US President Donald Trump’s daughter and advisor Ivanka Trump and other delegates of Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) on Tuesday attended a dinner hosted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Taj Falaknuma here.
Modi, Telangana Governor E. S. L. Narasimhan, Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao and some top politicians and industrialists dined with Ivanka on 101-seater dining table at the palace hotel. The guests were treated with a variety of delicacies including the famous Hyderabadi biryani.
For other GES delegates, the dinner was arranged in the hotel lounges.
Ivanka received a royal treatment as horse-drawn carriage of the Nizam era ferried her from the main gate to the palace atop the hill. She and other guests were greeted with a rose petal shower on entering the palace.
The White House advisor also went around the palace, which was once the residence of the Nizam, the ruler of erstwhile princely State of Hyderabad.
They all reached the palace after the inauguration of GES at Hyderabad International Convention Centre (HICC). Elaborate security arrangements were made as the palace is located in the old city of Hyderabad and is surrounded by densely populated neighbourhoods.
The Nizam’s suite, which used to be the private suite of the ruler of Hyderabad State and costs a whopping Rs 5 lakh to Rs 8 lakh a night was booked for Ivanka in case she stays at the palace.
However, she returned to Trident Hotel, where she is staying. Modi reached to Rajiv Gandhi International Airport to fly back to New Delhi.
Ivanka was the first high-profile foreign dignitary visiting the palace after it was converted into a star hotel a decade ago.
It was Nawab Vaqar-ul-Umra, the Nizam’s Prime Minister, who built the palace in 1893. Impressed by its magnificence, sixth Nizam Mir Mahboob Ali Khan bought it for himself and stayed there till 1911.
Built over 32 acres, the scorpion-shaped and all-marble palace palace stands tall in its splendour and majesty atop a hill, at 2,000 ft above sea level and overlooks the old city of Hyderabad.