How you react to the prime minister’s working holiday in Manali depends on which side of the Beas river you’re on.‘‘We’ve come to the wrong place for a honeymoon. Sitting in a car for six hours and waiting for the PM’s entourage to pass by is not our idea of a holiday,’’ grumbles a Ludhiana couple, among the hundreds of tourists ensnared in a three-hour traffic snarl caused by a state dinner for the PM.For another point of view, hop across the river. ‘‘He is like a god to us,’’ gushes Gyan Chand of Shuru, one of two villages under Prini panchayat. Tek Chand, a panchayat member tells you why: ‘‘Our work gets done. Apart from what we’ve got from him directly, we find that we face no problems dealing with any government department. They know the PM lives in our village.’’While Manali’s tourists and hotel and shop owners view the visit as an obstacle to business, Prini’s residents love it. Raju runs a tea shop across the road from Holiday Inn, which houses the PM’s cottage, ‘‘I have to down the shutters when the PM has to go anywhere but it doesn’t matter. Security personnel keep coming here for tea and snacks. My business is booming.’’The Prini panchayat has been allotted or in the process of acquiring a panchayat community hall, streetlights, treated water supply, a mahila mandal bhawan and a sports stadium. Several village roads have been paved and a link road to Prini has been built.Gopal Negi, another Prini resident, says, ‘‘Thanks to Vajpayee, the middle school in our village has been upgraded to a high school. Though he approved it in principle, officials sat on it for two years, angry that we had gone directly to the PM. After a news report that ‘Vajpayee’s village is angry with the PM’ was published, classes started in April.’’Perhaps, the only other ones still complaining are the Holiday Inn guests. The PM and his entourage has taken 20 rooms, the SPG another 20. ‘‘Guests at Holiday Inn. Welcome to the land of gods and goddesses. PM Security,’’ announces a sign outside the lobby where guests are frisked and their baggage subject to rigorous scrutiny.
