NEW DELHI, MARCH 19: There's disappointment and happiness at Maurya Sheraton. Y C Deveshwar, the Chairman of the ITC group, received Bill Clinton, sharing the honours with S S H Rehman, Managing Director, ITC Hotels, as his request for a 10-minute meeting with the President was reportedly turned down.At Maurya, the happiest people right now are the Indian intelligence agencies and Delhi Police, who are savouring the hotel's hospitality with subsidised meals in the staff canteen. Consequently, a number of hotel employees are reportedly foregoing their food, as they are chary of standing in queue with policemen brandishing sundry weapons while sniffer dogs lounge about lazily. The staff members also have to park their vehicles at least a kilometre away. Fortunately, they've been given a ferry service in the form of matadors and Maruti vans. Security preparations at the hotel for the President are also finally all in place. Sources revealed that the US Secret Service has taken up a special room in the hotel with its surveillance equipment and TV monitors. The equipment has been linked to spy satellites which enable the agents to monitor all of Delhi visually. Special listening devices have also been fitted that reportedly enable the Secret Service to eavesdrop on conversations in a 3-km radius. All telephone lines in the hotel, including each intercom, has been wired. And the Secret Service agents have a direct line to the police control room in case of any suspicious movement. Unconfirmed reports also have it that the Secret Service men are going to wear customised watches, a la James Bond, that alert them to to the presence of a bomb in the vicinity. This has allegedly been done to detect the presence of any human bombs, which is a remote possibility in any case. No one will have any direct access to Clinton himself. All food, or any other material will pass through a six-person cordon before it gets to the President. The first two will be Maurya employees, the next two will be US intelligence and the last two will be Clinton's very own men.No luxury is enough luxury for the man touted as the most powerful in the world. Which is also probably why nine TVs have been scattered around the Chandragupta suite, where he'll stay, including one in the loo.But despite all that, reveal sources, Clinton may just have to use the service elevator to go up to his room. And the service elevator has been given the spit and polish routine to provide suitable transport for the First Executive of the US, unlike its usual grimy appearance.As for his food, all of it is being flown in, including his own cook and barber. But in the off chance that he does have a bite at Maurya, it will be at either Dum Pukht or Bukhara. Insiders, however, are betting that it will be Bukhara, which has a namesake both in New York and Chicago and which the Clintons are reported to be partial to.
