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Clinton landed in a new Delhi indeed!

Josy Joseph in New Delhi

The New Delhi that American President Bill Clinton landed Sunday evening looked really new -- no, 'sanitised' is the word.

Air Force One, you see, flew through a sanitised airspace, into a sanitised airport, to a sanitised group of Indian officials waiting to welcome him. And no sooner was that done, the president was off, through, yes, a sanitised route to a sanitised hotel.

Never, never has the capital seen such a security set-up in its history.

"Almost the entire strength of the Delhi police was on duty on the eve of Holi," a senior police officer told rediff.com

And it looked like it: Cops in khaki -- as opposed to the ones that Clinton brought with him -- dotted almost every road and bylane, especially in the New Delhi area.

"Approximately 3,000 policemen are on duty in the eight-kilometre stretch between the technical area and Maurya Sheraton Hotel [where the president is put up]," the officer said.

All the roads leading to the domestic terminal and the technical area of the Palam airport, where the president landed along with his daughter, mother-in-law and officials landed, were closed to the public several minutes before his arrival. The pathways were blocked, and the busy Daula Kuan junction, which falls between the airport and Maurya Sheraton Hotel, taken over completely.

As Sunday revellers anxiously waited, the president's cavalcade, including the hi-tech limousine carrying him and daughter Chelsea, passed by into the Maurya, which spotted almost an entirely new look inside.

The hotel, the same five star deluxe that hosted Hillary Clinton in 1995, was closed to the public a day in advance and its security taken over by the US Marines and Secret Service. They secured the Chandragupta suite on the sixth floor. Last evening, each nook and corner of the hotel was searched by Indian and American commandos, with the assistance of sniffer dogs and security gadgets.

By Sunday afternoon, policemen had begun to take over roadsides too. They took positions at a distance of 10 metres.

"I have to stand here for another five hours," a constable posted outside Maurya lamented.

Thousands of policemen had to be vigilant as never before, as their seniors, vigilant as never before themselves, supervised security like never before.

The streets were not only secure but spotlessly clean as the civic agencies had carried out clean-ups, well, like never before. True the sprucing was fit for America's first citizen -- but the cheap paint that the authorities insisted on using to cover up anything that looked 'off-colour' gave the streets a bit of an awkward look. Like, for instance, the overhead water tank near the domestic terminal, which was bathed in white and red.

Similar was the fate of several other structures, especially road dividers and wayside sign boards.

The entire staff of the health and sanitation department of New Delhi were on duty, despite the holidays of Eid and Holi.

Lanes were freshly painted and marked, and the outer exteriors of the roads laid with red sand. Traffic policemen across the city wore new night uniforms, with night reflector strips.

It was not just the Delhi policemen who were keeping a watch on Clinton's arrival. At least five US satellites monitored each movement and every inch of space around him. These satellites, with sub-meter resolution, can obtain photographs of almost every human being around him.

Sources said some of the Indian IRS satellites, used partially for keeping watch on major security-related movements, also focussed on Clinton, though they are almost of no effective use, what with their over six-metre resolution.

However, there clearly was no major co-ordination between the local police and the American agencies. Clinton's personal security was completely in the hands of the Americans; Indians were kept -- no, not even at arm's length, but much beyond that. Thus, the only thing that the Delhi police did, effectively, was to clear the roads for the president.

"Traffic," police sources admit, "will be chaotic in the days when Clinton is in Delhi. Especially on Tuesday, when he is scheduled to visit Rashtrapati Bhavan, Raj Ghat, Hyderabad House and Hotel Ashoka."

CLINTON VISITS INDIA :The complete coverage

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