The instructions said we needed to be in our seats by 5 pm but having been to other functions in Rashtrapati Bhawan I went an hour earlier. Just as well. There was a traffic jam at the ‘alighting point’ and a human traffic jam as we walked up the sandstone steps that led to the forecourt where Narendra Modi was going to be sworn in as India’s 15th Prime Minister. And, it was hot. Very, very hot so ladies decked up and bejeweled, covered their heads with their sari pallus and gentlemen took off their jackets even before we were metal detected and searched.
By the time we got to the vast forecourt, resonant of colonial times and history, it was already full of people. I was ushered to an enclosure just behind V-1 and found myself a seat with a clear view of the podium where the swearing-in was to take place and so spent the next hour watching an array of glamorous and powerful people make there way to V-1. Among the first of the VVIPs to arrive were Chief Ministers and Governors. Sheila Dixit sat down next to Vasundhara Raje while Salman Khan and his entourage found a spot that offered them a ringside view. Hema Malini and Dharmendra came late and seemed surprised to see so many people already in the VVIP enclosure. This was because gatecrashers from media and business circles had occupied seats that were not meant for them.
The businessmen in the V-1 enclosure were those who have been big investors in Gujarat. The Ambani family, Gautam Adani and the Ruias had the best seats. As I watched from behind, fanning myself with my invitation card, I could not help noticing how many rabid opponents of Modi like Javed Akhtar had sneaked their way in. Not far from him sat Jairam Ramesh who has raged routinely on national television that Modi would never become prime minister. Many people in the new Prime Minister’s inner circles had to share seats in our humbler enclosure despite having V-1 invitations. Behind me sharing Swapan Dasgupta’s seat was a man who Swapan introduced as ‘Kako-Bhai a very important member of Modi’s household.’ Kako-bhai took his inability to find a place in V-1 cheerfully, pointing out to us those who should not be there.
Just before 6 pm arrived the foreign heads of state, our ex-prime minister, Sonia Gandhi and her son. They sat amid their Congress comrades and looked less sullen than they did last week when neither Sonia nor Rahul Gandhi were able to bring themselves to congratulate Modi on his victory. Then, came a roll of drums and the President, a tiny figure hidden behind his tall bodyguards, came slowly down the magnificent steps of Rashtrapati Bhavan and the ceremony officially began. Our new prime minister took his oaths of office and secrecy in a strong voice, clearly enunciating every word and a loud cheer went up from the vast gathering with some disturbing cries of Jai Sri Ram from the back. More loudly from my own enclosure came shouts of Bharat Mata ki Jai and Vande Matram.
The sun slowly set as the new ministers came forward to be sworn in. Swapan’s wife, Reshmi, pointed to a monkey playing on the roof of Rashtrapati Bhawan, we chattered about the new ministers and expressed the hope that they would perform better than their predecessors. And, the ceremony dragged on until darkness had fallen over the forecourt and everyone had lost interest in the new ministers and the ceremony. Why could the Ministers of State not have been sworn in together someone asked why did they have to drag things out with individual oaths of office? Why could the Prime Minister not have sworn in just his cabinet ministers instead of the whole caboodle? In other words, dear readers, most people were quite visibly bored with a ceremony that really went on too long and was dreary beyond belief.
Those of us who were there were happy to be present to bear witness to a historical transition but at the same time I was personally disappointed that Rashtrapati Bhawan had put together a ceremony so reminiscent of those tedious black and white Doordarshan documentaries from long ago. The length of the ceremony may have been more bearable if we had not been subjected for more than an hour to the drone of a commentator whose commentary was straight out of a school assembly. In Doordarshan tones he described for us the architectural wonders of the building that stood before us and when this was done he started on the flowers in the gardens and then when the presidents and prime ministers arrived he ordered us to clap for them.
How much more exalting it would have been, we said to each other, if there had been a musical performance before the ceremony or even patriotic songs or Sanskrit shlokas? But, then we reminded ourselves that the ceremony was organized by Rashtrapati Bhawan and not the new prime minister so perhaps what we saw was the swan song of Soviet style ceremonies in Delhi. Having seen many, many of these in the years that I have been a political journalist let me say that they are ceremonies that should have been done away with long ago because they seem designed for another era. They have remained unchanged because the officials who design them have remained unchanged and seemingly oblivious of how much India has changed while their backs were turned.
On his first day in office the Prime Minister made it clear that things would be changing in Delhi and that they would change fast. His first day as prime minister happened to be the fiftieth anniversary of Jawaharlal Nehru’s death and he made it a point not to go and pay obeisance along with members of the Gandhi family. Was it a symbolic gesture? Was it equally symbolic that he began his tenure by placing a handful of red rose petals before a picture of Gandhiji? In any case he needs to get beyond symbols and bring about the real changes he promised in this campaign because the country that he now leads is filled with people impatient for real change. Nobody knows this better than him and perhaps nobody knows better than him that it was this promise of change that has brought him an electoral victory that is almost a revolution.
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