New Delhi, May 22
Dr Manmohan Singh, known for his simple living and high thinking will have to get accustomed to round-the-clock multi-layered security inevitably attached to the office of the Prime Minister.
Dr Manmohan Singh’s 19, Safdarjang Road residence here had a steady stream of visitors on Saturday when he was sworn in as Prime Minister. Men from Delhi Police Security kept a close vigil and satisfied themselves about every visitor’s identity before letting anybody enter the gate. But access beyond the gate did not mean access to his residence. A large number of party workers assembled under a “pandal” pitched up on the front lawn of the house and waited patiently to get a chance to greet the otherwise accessible family with flowers and words.
But the Singhs’ had perhaps reserved the day for a reunion with relatives and close friends from Punjab and Delhi. Kinship with the Prime Minister was certainly an advantage and the securitymen were most courteous in directing them for brief frisking.
Clad in a white suit with a blue ‘dupatta’, his wife looked tired and declined requests for interviews. In a rather hurried conversation with the Tribune correspondent, she said, “I’m not in a proper frame of mind today for an interview.”
On being told that a large number of readers especially those in Punjab would be deprived of her interview, she smiled and remarked, “That is a very clever way of inducing me to speak.”
A large number of television journalists waited with their camera crew outside the residence in the hope of getting a sound bite from the family. Their patience bore fruits when Mrs Gursharan Kaur asked the securitymen to allow the journalists to enter the gate. “Hope you all are happy now,” she asked mediapersons.
Like a perfect hostess, the Prime Minister’s wife offered sweets and water to mediapersons.
Replying to a question, Mrs Gursharn Kaur expressed the confidence that Dr Singh would do justice to the country’s top constitutional post and the Finance portfolio. “He has to handle that and I am sure that he will do well,” she said.
She said their three daughters and two son-in-laws, Manmohan Singh’s brother and her brother would join them for the swearing-in-ceremony. She said the family wanted to take more people but there were not enough invitation cards.
Asked if the family had planned any celebrations after the swearing-in ceremony, she said, “At home, we are not doing anything special.”
The family said all their relatives are happy and excited and the occasion holds a special significance for them.
Their first born, Upinder Singh teaches in St. Stephensm College in Delhi. Their second daughter, Daman works, for a non-government
organisation and the youngest, Amrit is a lawyer in New York.
