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Mahajan's first-birthday blast fizzles

An ominously loud crack. Followed by a smaller one. For a moment, one did not know what had happened. Was it another firecracker? Or was someone taking a pot shot at Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee who was seated in the front row, facing the stage, unprotected?

The stage itself was preparing to highlight the moment that has been touted as Vajpayee's finest -- the bus ride to Pakistan. The gates of the two countries had been rolled in, symbolically enclosing the invisible, seldom-broken barrier that had lain between India and Pakistan at Wagah since 1947. Even the bronze-gold Sada-e-Sarhad bus, which had made its way across two ramps and reached the right side of the stage, had stopped moving.

The thousand-plus audience that, moments ago, was happily cheering the enaction of a historic moment became eerily silent. Then, everyone were on their feet, craning their necks to first look at the sofas where the VVIPs were seated, then at the Ashok Leyland bus that made its mark in history by ferrying the Prime Minister of India to the Pakistani city of Lahore.

The front wheel had sunk in, its hubcap partly crushed. On the other side, the damage was not as serious, the stage had cracked, but the wheel was still above ground. All of which lasted less than a minute, thanks to popular VJ Jaaved Jaffri who was in the bus.

He peered out, took one look at the situation, and scrambled out, spouting Jaffrian lines about how the bus was carrying "heavyweights" and how "yeh baat 'Atal' hai ki yeh kisi aam aadmi ke bus ki baat nahin hai", with big grins directed at the PM.

The crowd was still silent, so he promptly called forth the pop darlings of the capital city. And when Silk Route stepped off the bus and on to the stage, did a stranded bus hold much chance?

Then Jaaved invited the Pakistani sensation Junoon, who brought an "aman ka paigham" (message of peace) from across the border. With both bands getting into a rendition of Junoon's popular number Dosti, there was not much chance of the bus 'accident' holding anyone's attention any more.

The moment was representative of the 'cultural extravaganza' held at Hauz Khas, Delhi's cultural hotspot, to celebrate the first anniversary of the BJP government. For the entire evening -- the result of a hurried, two-week plan -- was a mishmash of bad co-ordination held together by threads of professionalism.

Take the 'Sada-e-Sarhad' fiasco for example. It was a good, dramatic idea -- but there was no time to rehearse the event. The stage itself was ready only by 4pm IST on the evening of March 19, and the ramps over which the bus was to travel onstage were ready only by 6. By which time, of course, most of the audience was seated -- in accordance with the instructions on the invitation card.

And when the ramps were ready, Information and Broadcasting Minister Pramod Mahajan refused to allow any rehearsal. As did event director Amir Raza Hussain (of Legends of Ram fame).

Nor did Junoon and Silk Route have any time to rehearse together. The result -- Junoon went through the song smoothly, but Silk Route looked a little lost; though Mohit did make a manful effort at playing along.

In fact, Mahajan had approached Raza Hussain only on March 3. "I told Pramod that it was too short a notice, but then he is a good friend, so how could I say no?"

Hussain postponed the opening of his play Pardon Me Prime Minister -- which he is doing for Welcomgroup -- from March 25 to March 29, girded his loins, and took up the challenge. Calls to friends in Bombay brought in Bijon Dasgupta who set up the spectacular 200 feet by 50 feet set (that included four lions, eight horses and four elephants) and the two moving sets, and Jaaved Jaffri who choreographed the dances.

Om Puri, who was in Hyderabad shooting for David Dhawan's Kunwara, agreed to be the sutradhar.

It was only then that the script for the sutradhar was quickly written and sent to Puri. There was only one hitch -- he was busy shooting and the script was in Roman. Which made it rather difficult for him to do anything about mastering it. The Devanagri script was handed to Puri only when he reached Delhi on March 16.

Yet, in two days, the consummate performer had got familiarised with the highly ornate script (70 per cent Urdu).

The sutradhar's script was originally to have been done by Kaifi Azmi, who even flew down to Delhi twice for the purpose. But the deadlines were too rushed for the master poet who is over 80 now; so Hussain and an assistant wrote the script.

Eventually, a show was put together -- a show that was expected to dazzle the eyes and overwhelm the senses, a show that was supposed to have its audience spellbound.

What happened, however, was a different story. The event was plagued with problems from the very beginning. Even as the sets were being erected, there were loud protests from the walkers who used the park. The Archaeological Survey of India zoomed in with its own objections -- that the set was not 12 feet away from the protected monument, that the lights used during the play would damage the monument.

"This," fumed art director Dasgupta, who has done practically every major show, including Miss India and the Zee cine awards, "is ridiculous. Why are they creating all the hurdles for us when they cannot do anything about protecting the monument? Every 'protected' historical monument in the country is defaced with obscene scrawls and love notes; a large number are used as lavatories. So why is there so much of a hungama when professional people want to use a historical monument as a backdrop to a cultural presentation?"

The next objection came from the morning strollers who insisted on their right to walk. And walk they did, all over the stage, every day. "We could not object," says Dasgupta ruefully. "All we could do was request them to be careful. The stage was still under construction and we did not want anyone to fall off."

While all these preparations were on -- with everyone, including the actors, working late into the night -- Mahajan was becoming increasingly unhappy. The prime minister's security had nixed the venue as too 'insecure' -- which meant he would not be there to witness the grand celebration of his government's first anniversary.

Eventually, though, Vajpayee changed his mind, driving everyone except Mahajan into a tizzy. The prime minister's security went into hyperdrive. Twenty-four hours before the event, the set -- which was still not ready -- was sealed to everyone except essential workers. Security swarmed on the site with metal detectors and sniffer dogs, ripping up the plywood to check under the stage, moving under the bamboo structures built to hold the thousand-plus audience that was expected.

Unfortunately, though, more than 3,000 people were invited. Which led to angry scenes outside the venue. Though the invitation cards had asked people to be seated by 6, the entrance to be used by the green card holders was closed by 5.

"What can we do?" said a helpless-looking Delhi police officer. "We have been asked not to allow any more people because there are no more seats left." The blue and gold card members, on the other hand, were allowed to enter the venue until after 7pm.

The ninety-minute function, scheduled to begin at 6.30pm, started more than 45 minutes late. The prime minister arrived soon after the evening star and, before one knew it, there was a podium on stage and a black bandgala-clad Mahajan telling the audience how the nuclear tests and the bus journey were different roads to the same goal of peace.

The show began with a blast, representative of Pokhran II, as silver-clad youngsters dance-skated across the stage in tune to Satyameva Jayate. Then followed little skits, with sutradhar Om Puri providing the links necessary to jump from one historical event to the next -- Krishna riding a golden chariot to counsel a grief-stricken Yudhishtra; Buddha's message of peace to Ananda; the victory of Chanakya and Chandragupta Maurya and Chandragupta's coronation, complete with elephants and celebratory dancers; Thomas Rowe representing the first step of the British into India; the murder of Saunders by Bhagat Singh, with Aye watan playing in the background; Bhagat Singh's trial, which brought in the first moving set, the courtroom; the tribulations of Bhagat Singh and his comrades in jail (featuring the second moving set).

Then, the glorious moment of freedom, represented by Jawaharlal Nehru's famous "freedom at midnight" speech. The heart-breaking moments of Partition, seen in a man covered with flames being chased by an angry crowd. And a poignant, weak, unhappy, fasting Gandhi. Who used the voice of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan to ask, "Will they [the Indians] let me go to Pakistan? I have much work there too." Cut to darkness, two shots and a quavering "He Ram..."

To the sutradhar who says the dream seen by Gandhi was finally fulfilled by another son of the nation, Vajpayee. On to the Lahore bus...

"Satyameva Jayate," said Raza Hussain, "is not a representation of history. We have only selected different moments in history that are reminiscent of the theme that something like nuclear tests is sometimes necessary to ensure peace. Even though this event was not propaganda, it was in celebration of the first year of the BJP government and of its two greatest moments."

One did wonder, though, whether it was necessary for each of the skits to be in English in contrast to the khaalis Urdu-Hindi employed by the sutradhar.

And then, there is the question of the cost. Though official sources put it at Rs15 million, that is privately estimated to only be the cost of the set.

Both Raza Hussain and Om Puri did not charge a paisa for their services. "I do not have any political affiliation," Puri said. "This government is celebrating its first year by enacting moments from history. This is not devious propaganda, so I do not see anything wrong in being part of the process. After all, when the Congress organised 'Run for Your Country', all of us were there. As for the last bit -- the bus to Pakistan -- after all, the prime minister did it. And he did it with noble feeling. Besides, it was good fun. I don't expect any payment, though there may be some token of appreciation."

Others -- the actors, event managers Wizcraft (who were in charge of the seating arrangements), Dasgupta, the labourers who put up the set, Junoon -- have charged discounted rates for their services. The total unofficial cost for the event is estimated at Rs50 million.

The question is -- what is the finance ministry (which had promised to curtail government spending) going to have to say about all this?

Photographs: Jewella C Miranda Tell us what you think of this report