The Hindu : Media held `captive'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Sep 26, 2002

National

National

Media held `captive'

By V. Jayanth

NEW DELHI SEPT. 25. It is not often that an Airbus 747 Jumbo aircraft with passengers arrives in Ahmedabad. The few 747 aircraft that land and take off from that airport are normally on test flights. But not so today. It was a very special flight.

The Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, who was returning from a four-day official visit to the Maldives, decided to make a stopover in Gujarat, to visit the scene of the terrorist attack at Gandhinagar.

Mr. Vajpayee not only advanced his departure by about six hours, but also chose to return to New Delhi via Ahmedabad. So the Jumbo flight landed there at about 4.15 p.m. and took off again at 6.45 p.m. for New Delhi. But most of the officials and the entire media accompanying the Prime Minister were `captive' inside the aircraft for those two hours and more.

According to officials travelling with Mr. Vajpayee, it was a carefully thought-out decision. Instead of having to return to New Delhi and making a separate trip to Gujarat on Thursday, it was agreed that it would be more convenient and symbolic for him to complete the visit today itself.

When the delegation and the media reached the Male airport this morning, they were told that Mr. Vajpayee would halt in Ahmedabad to visit the Swaminarayan temple.

The press corps was even given hopes that it could accompany the Prime Minister in the convoy, without getting into the temple complex. But owing to the "technical difficulties'' of going through Customs and Immigration, it was decided to abandon that plan.

Just as the terrorists had their own plan and significance for attacking the temple in Gandhinagar, the political importance of Mr. Vajpayee's immediate visit to the scene was also not lost.

Officials, who kept the media informed of the plans, said that Mr. Vajpayee had spoken to the Deputy Prime Minister, the President and the Gujarat Governor on Tuesday, soon after knowing about the massacre.

But there was no mention of the Gujarat Chief Minister, Narendra Modi.

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