It was a classic case of the left hand not knowing what the right was doing. Accredited journalists were in for a rude shock when they were denied permission to walk across Vigyan Bhavan on Tuesday morning for covering Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s address at the conference of Directors-General of Police organised by the Intelligence Bureau.
While security personnel allowed cars with parking labels to pass through the east gate for parking on India Gate lawns but minutes later refused to allow accredited journalists to walk from the lawns to the main plaza of Vigyan Bhavan. They told the media persons to take a detour on foot through Maulana Azad Road and reach the main entry gate. However, others were allowed to walk from the rear lawns to the front main gate of the venue.
Even when several journalists, who were issued special cards by the IB for the conference along with their PIB accreditation, tried to reason out with the security men that in the past few weeks the Prime Minister had addressed at least three major conferences at the same venue and no such instruction was issued then, they were refused permission to cover the distance from the India Gate lawns to the main gate by foot.
“While we drove our car through east gate, it was not stopped and we were not security risks but now after parking our cars and showing our government accreditation cards and IB-issued cards we are being asked to take a detour on foot of more than a kilometre. How is it possible to reach the main plaza in time?’’ asked a senior journalist who was, like others, invited to cover the morning session of the conference.
Harried journalists made phone calls to the OSD of Union Home Minister and Additional Director-General (Media) but the police men refused to budge saying they had not received any instructions from their higher authorities.
However, officials of the Special Protection Group (SPG) who manned the main plaza and frisked the journalists said they were unaware of any such instruction. Inside, senior IB officials also pleaded ignorance. So was it the overzealous Delhi police which had messed up?
