Bullet-proof screen removed at 2 am, anxious moments for backup staff

Barely hours earlier, however, the screen had led to many crossed fingers and frayed nails.

The 10,000-odd seats arranged for the general public were filled by 7.30 am.(Source: PTI photo)

There was a flutter among technicians when they were informed that the bullet-proof screen around the lectern was being removed.

The absence of the bullet-proof screen around Prime Minister Narendra Modi — as he delivered his maiden speech at Red Fort on Friday — sparked many a debate about his desire to reach out to the audience, to do away with what lies in between to ensure an impeccable presentation.

Barely hours earlier, however, the screen had led to many crossed fingers and frayed nails.

Read full text of the speech here

For, the bullet-proof screen was very much there, secured in place when a Doordarshan team completed its dress rehearsal for the live telecast on August 13, its first with newly imported High Definition (HD) equipment.

But past midnight on Friday, there was a flutter among technicians when they were informed that the bullet-proof screen around the lectern was being removed. These orders evidently came from the Special Protection Group (SPG) and were late as a sign of abundant caution. The instructions were that the screen should only be removed at night and even the Ministry of Defence and Doordarshan teams learnt about the change of plans at around 2 am.

Doordarshan officials said that the removal of the bullet-proof screen led to a “temporary dislocation” of some fibre optic cables laid for the live telecast which gave them quite a few anxious moments.

“The glitch was quickly restored and the signals were tested and re-tested till the early hours of the morning by which time senior Information and Broadcasting Ministry officials also arrived,’’ said one senior Doordarshan official. “But for those few hours on Thursday night, we all had palpitations due to the high-profile nature of the telecast and the sudden removal of the bullet-proof screen.’’

Ritu Sarin

Ritu Sarin is Executive Editor (News and Investigations) at The Indian Express group. Her areas of specialisation include internal security, money laundering and corruption. Sarin is one of India’s most renowned reporters and has a career in journalism of over four decades. She is a member of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) since 1999 and since early 2023, a member of its Board of Directors. She has also been a founder member of the ICIJ Network Committee (INC). She has, to begin with, alone, and later led teams which have worked on ICIJ’s Offshore Leaks, Swiss Leaks, the Pulitzer Prize winning Panama Papers, Paradise Papers, Implant Files, Fincen Files, Pandora Papers, the Uber Files and Deforestation Inc. She has conducted investigative journalism workshops and addressed investigative journalism conferences with a specialisation on collaborative journalism in several countries. ... Read More

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