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The Secret Service is currently investigating how fameballs Michaele and Tareq Salahi crashed Obama's first state dinner, Bravo camera crew in tow. We have a theory: Their polo buddy, Indian ambassador Arun K. Singh, got them in on the DL.
In the photo album Michaele Salahi posted on her Facebook page after the event, one photo stands out among all those of the crashers smiling next to famous media personalities, politicians and Joe Bidens: A picture with one "Ambassador Singh":
This is Arun K. Singh, Deputy Chief of Mission for the Indian Embassy, and he has chilled with the Salahis before. Here they are drinking wine at a September 9th event hosted by the Indian Embassy to announce America's Polo Cup, a 2010 India Vs. USA polo match organized by Tareq Salahi and co-sponsored by Indian Ambassador Meera Shankar:
A (terribly reproduced) picture of the three even made October edition of the Indian Embassy's newsletter. Ambassador Singh is quoted in the Indian Express as saying "the polo match between India and the US next year to be played at the National Mall reflects another dimension of the growing relationship between the two countries." In that same article, Michaele Salahi is quoted as saying the match "aspires to bring the love of the game to a wider audience and bring international cultures together..." So, Singh and the Salahis are polo buddies. They go way back.
Furthermore, Tareq Salahi's only statement to the Washington Post's Reliable Source blog after crashing the state dinner was "India is the challenger in the America's Polo Cup World Championships June 11/12 2010, and they are very excited in this first ever cultural connection being hosted on the DC National Mall since Polo is one of the primary sports in India." This suggests a polo-motivated party crashing.
Based on this knowledge, here are a couple theories of how Singh helped the Salahis crash the White House.
1) Singh invited the Salahis to the dinner as a reward for their work on the India Vs. USA polo match, but for some reason their names didn't make it on the official guest list. When they showed up and were turned away (Brian Williams told the Times the couple's car was turned away by the first ring of Secret Service, after which they "hopped out") they called up Arun K. Singh: "Dude, you said we were on the list!" Singh spoke to the Secret Service and got them in.
2) The Salahis showed up uninvited, confident that they could use their Singh connection to get in the party. After being turned away, they either name-dropped Singh or got him to vouch for them to the Secret Service.
Either way, the Salahis weren't just some randos who showed up at the White House and schmoozed their way past the Secret Service with their fancy clothes. The Salahis knew somebody; they likely leveraged their connection to Arun K. Singh—the Indian Embassy's polo liaison—to crash the state dinner and successfully roll their way to immortal fameball-dom.
The Salahis will be appearing on Larry King Live Monday, where they will maybe prove our theory correct. Stay tuned!
UPDATE: Talking Points Memo has a statement from the Indian Embassy: "Neither the embassy nor anyone from the embassy was involved in any way in their getting into the White House. Nor did we request any invitation for them."
Send an email to Adrian Chen, the author of this post, at adrian@gawker.com.
Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
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