AAM AADMI TROUBLE The great Hyderabad tamasha starts every day sharp at 6.30 am and the lead actor in this show is ‘George’. Are you wondering who this new actor is? Well, he is Governor ESL Narasimhan, the first citizen of Andhra Pradesh, whose temple visits at the cost of the state exchequer has become almost unbearable for the aam aadmi of the city, who are left high and dry each time he steps out into the street in his convoy of cars and posse of policemen.
For two hours in the morning, citizens on the roads and inside a popular Hanuman temple have been suffering for the last two-and-half years as officialdom and protocol have been taking precedence over the aam janata who have no choice but to patiently wait for the governor to finish his dozens of parikramas.
This, at a time when the nation’s capital is ironically being swept by an austerity wave, under the Aam Aadmi Party whose motto is to get rid of VIP culture.
The preparation for George's (Narsimhan’s call sign for the police) everyday visit to the Hanuman temple in Khairatabad starts at 6 am and on New Year’s Eve on Tuesday it was no different. It began with GHMC workers hurriedly cleaning up the stretch between Raj Bhavan and Khairatabad, which is otherwise left to gather ‘dust’ during the rest of the day, then the cops securing the area.
Even a fire tender of the AP Fire Services department, which is known to reach late during fire mishaps, was stationed near the temple at the break of dawn to follow protocol. Strangely for this ‘private’ visit, the governor ditches his official Mercedes Benz and instead travels in a black private Scorpio.
At 7 am on Tuesday, security personnel (both traffic and law & order) took up their positions on the roads and outside Raj Bhavan, with a Rakshak vehicle ready and waiting for Narasimhan to leave the place.
Half an hour later, the word ‘George' was reportedly abuzz in the handsets and a contingent of traffic police started waving at vehicles on the corner of the Government College of Nursing Home to steer clear.Around 7.55 am, the police stopped traffic in front of Raj Bhavan and also near Khairatabad junction, leaving motorists wondering what was going on early in the morning.
Exactly at 8.05 am, the six-vehicle convoy, including the Mercedez Benz, of Narasimhan sped towards the temple. “Since Narasimhan Sir does not like to use his official vehicle for his personal visit, he prefers to keep it a low-key affair and does not even board the Benz,” an officer said.
The already waiting police, including Punjagutta station house officer NThirupathi, received him outside the temple with a salute, while inside the temple the guards started frisking people in through a makeshift security corridor, involving a metal detector and an enclosure for women.
At least 15 policemen were inside the temple by the time George reached there, in addition to the already existing attaché of armed and non-armed security personnel. “What is going on and why are metal detectors in place this morning?” asked Raghuraman, a devotee, who usually turns up late in the afternoon, when he has free access to the temple.
After going through all the frisking, a visibly upset Raghuraman had to wait in acorner for the governor to finish his puja and parikrama around the main shrine, when no one is allowed to come towards his path. With security personnel turning the temple into a fortress, like they do every morning, the devotees were restricted from using mobile phones and were not even allowed to stand in one place for too long.
The great Hyderabad tamasha ended around 8.35 am and again the aam aadmi had to bear the brunt, as traffic was stopped for George saab’s convoy. A few seconds after the VVIP devotee of Hanumanji left, the people in khaki followed and the common man inside the temple heaved a sigh of relief, wondering what had struck them.
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