Where are the crowds?

The world's most powerful man came to India and was seen by a thousand menand women. Or two thousand or five thousand. What a shame for a ...

The world8217;s most powerful man came to India and was seen by a thousand menand women. Or two thousand or five thousand. What a shame for a country ofone hundred million people! How is one to record it? How is one to put it inhistory? How are we to explain it to our grandchildren? What is Clinton tomake of this welcome? What a thing to tell to his country?

Time was when a visiting dignitary came to India and every inch on the roadfrom the Palam airstrip was jammed with people, Connaught Place became a seaof humanity and the Ramlila grounds, where civic receptions were held,outstretched beyond confines and a roar of clapping deafened our ears.

Has Clinton been told the story of the arrival of a predecessor of his,President Eisenhower in 1959? The crowds were so thick right up from Palamthat the American ambassador could not reach the airport in time for thewelcome ceremony. His car got held up by the crowds and he had to walk acouple of miles amidst chanting, nudging crowds to reach the tarmac. Whenthe presidential motorcade inched down towards Rashtrapati Bhavan, policemenby a show of hands and lathis had to keep away the crowds, eager to shakehands with Ike. quot;Thank God, these were friendly crowds. Otherwise, I don8217;tknow what could have happened,8221; the ambassador exclaimed.

Or earlier when Bulganin and Khrushchev, the B. and K. team, came, thousandsof people had been pouring into Delhi for days. When they reached theValley, Srinagar was jampacked with cheering crowds. Was anyone afraid ofterrorists? Khrushchev was so overtaken by the warmth of the reception thathe told the crowds in Srinagar: 8220;When you need help, shout for us and wewill come over those mountain peaks to be with you.8221; In Calcutta there wasnot a speck of the road to be seen for people were everywhere.

It was there, overcome by the enthusiasm of the crowds, that JawaharlalNehru felt it necessary to put India8217;s neutrality into perspective. He didnot want the exuberance of the crowds to give a wrong impression. Heemphasised that whatever friendship the crowds showed, India would staynon-aligned and not join this bloc or that. That heartened the world whichwas drawing different conclusions from the welcome.

One of the reasons for the crowds which overflowed in the cities was that atmany places Nehru used to come along with the dignitary. Standing in an opencar with the visitor, he was an arresting figure and the crowds wentwild.

The style of those mass receptions took off from the reception that Nehrugot in the Soviet Union on his first visit there as prime minister. Hundredsand thousands of people thronged the streets wherever he went, breaking inthose days of severe communist rule tight strictures of welcome. 8220;I haveleft my heart behind,8221; said Nehru in Moscow when he was returning toIndia.

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When it was the turn of B. and K. to come on a return visit, he asked thepeople here to try to give them a reception like the one he had received inthe then Soviet Union. And the people just poured into the streets, hundredsand thousands of them.

One of the earliest dignitaries to come to India soon after Independence wasPresident Tito of Yugoslavia. He came by ship to Bombay and from Bombay bytrain to the ceremonial platform, which is why it was so named, at the NewDelhi railway station. From there to Rashtrapati Bhavan he drove withRajendra Prasad and Nehru standing in an open car. You should have seen thescene in Connaught Place that afternoon. The place had never been so fullbefore and the crowds gave them a cheer that was superb for its dignity.How times have changed! Where are the crowds? Where is the interaction withthe people? Where is that warmth of those public receptions?