Organizing the Prime Minister’s visit

Inge is a Working Committee member and part of the 50th anniversary team. She was also part of the special task force which was set up at the request of the Foundation office to organize the Prime Minister’s visit on 25th February. Here she talks about what was involved.

For me, the Prime Minister’s visit was the most intense part of the birthday celebrations because the rest of the birthday week events were organised, and organised very well, by the respective teams.

From mid December, the task force really began working on the visit. Originally, we were told that the Prime Minister would be here for three hours but this was later cut to two. We broke down those three hours minute by minute. This included Angela filming and timing the drive between Matrimandir, Savitri Bhavan and the Auditorium to see how long it would take. Then, together with the Foundation, we started to look at a programme of who should be where to greet him or to explain things.

Regarding his visit to the Matrimandir, there was a lot of discussion about what he would do there, who he would speak to, how the water ceremony by the lotus pond would be organized etc. The Matrimandir executives took responsibility for this and did an amazing job.

However, there were things on the original programme for the Prime Minister’s visit that didn’t make it or were changed, even at the last minute, because of time issues. In fact, our biggest challenge was trying to get answers to the many questions we received regarding his specific programme on the day. Many of these were left unanswered or the information changed every few hours, depending on whether you spoke to somebody from the police, the Ministry, the Prime Minister’s office or his Special Protection Group (SPG), the people who were in charge of overall security. This made it very difficult for us in the task force to keep others involved in the picture, and some people got frustrated, but we had to ensure that everything went forward according to the best information we had at the time.

We didn’t feel there was any real pressure upon us from people who wanted to meet the Prime Minister. It was clear from the beginning that certain pioneers and other relevant persons, such as the executives of the venues, would be included as well as members of the Working Committee and 50th team. However, the final decision was out of our hands.

There were two types of passes. One was for programme staff who would have access to the venue to be visited by the Prime Minister. But a day or so before the visit, we discovered that if you wished to be closer to the Prime Minister, you needed another pass called a ‘proximity clearance pass’, which required a much higher level of clearance.

We learned very late that not everybody on the list we had submitted received these passes, for security reasons and because of the time available. The entire line up at Savitri Bhavan and Bharat Nivas, for example, was drastically reduced. The Prime Minister’s office and the Special Protection Group made the final decision about who got these passes and, unfortunately, two members of the Working Committee and many others, such as venue executives, did not receive these passes.

Just getting the passes to the right people was another challenge. Doordarshan showed up at the Foundation office at half past midnight on the morning of the visit because they needed personalised passes to film the Prime Minister. Most of us only got our passes that morning: it was a tough job delivering them because the roads were blocked by security, and the local police were not always in agreement about who should be let through.

In fact, the authorities also took decisions regarding who would meet the Prime Minister, where they would stand and what would happen. For example, two hours before the Prime Minister was due to arrive, the programme at the Matrimandir was changed significantly: there, too, the size of the welcoming committee was reduced.

However, the heads of the SPG really tried to accommodate our wishes. They understood that we wanted to create an intimate atmosphere for the Prime Minister. The final venue of his visit was the Sri Aurobindo Auditorium. We wanted more than half of the auditorium – 250 seats – to be filled with Aurovilians. Approximately fifty were for the parents of children who would be on the stage, organisers, trustees, etc, and the rest were chosen in a draw as more than 800 people wanted to attend. Firstly, we had to check that all the names in the final draw were community members, then the Blue Light people helped me to allocate a random number to each name, and the top 200 received an invitation. If someone dropped out, the next person on the list would receive a seat. The final list was only ready on the evening before the visit in order for us to accommodate as many last minute name changes as possible.

We were also told by the police that a hundred people on the waiting list could come to the venue, and we arranged for a screen outside where people could watch the proceedings. Security subsequently allowed some of these to enter the Auditorium to watch the speech, as there were a few free spaces. Sadly, some people who were originally told they could watch the proceedings from the balcony were ushered down by the SPG minutes before the start.

Actually, the police and security were very accommodating and trusting. Even if someone turned up at the Auditorium without an ID, or late, they would let them in once they were identified by one of us.

The other 200 seats were taken up by the entourages of the Prime Minister and other VIPs, by panchayat leaders, important donors, chartered accountants, the media etc. We had about a hundred VIPs, including the British Deputy High Commissioner from Chennai, people from the French and Russian Consulates, Governing Board and ex-Governing Board and former International Advisory Council members.

Chali and I were in the Foundation office until 2.30 of the morning of the visit working out where everybody should sit according to protocol.

We had invited the Ashram trustees but they couldn’t come because they had a function with the Prime Minister in Pondicherry beforehand, and road access and time did not allow them to travel to Auroville.

Everybody, including the Foundation staff, worked so hard. We were really in awe of what the Matrimandir and the Bharat Nivas teams achieved in such a short time. The latter team worked all night but they remained so cheerful and happy. It was really an example of what we can do when we all work together.

In the end, everything happened beautifully, in spite of fears in the community beforehand that there would be chaos during that week, that people would not be able to leave their homes, that there would be garbage everywhere etc.

As everybody wanted to prepare the best programme possible, we trusted that it would be something memorable and beautiful, and it was. What was amazing was how everything finally came together; we all felt we were carried by something.