New Delhi: Big Stage, Same Chaos
By M.Saraswathi
KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 16 (Bernama) -- Twelve years ago, I was a correspondent based in New Delhi, India, a city that operates to its own peculiar character and rhythm.
Major conferences and summits are nothing new here.
As India’s political capital, New Delhi is home to the Presidential Palace, Parliament House and the Supreme Court and, by extension, some of the country’s most elaborate security arrangements.
So, I returned to cover Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s working visit to the 18th BRICS Leaders’ Summit mentally well prepared for heightened security, road diversions, restricted movement and layers upon layers of security protocols.
After all, even on an ordinary day, barricades, checkpoints and chronic traffic congestion are part of life in Delhi.
The slightest possibility of a security threat can bring another layer of restrictions.
With leaders such as Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping in town, one could only imagine how much more intense it would become.
Having lived and worked here before has its advantages. You learn how to manoeuvre, where to go, what to avoid and perhaps most importantly, when not to take a chance.
So, when a fellow journalist suggested that we head to Chandni Chowk for a shopping spree before the Prime Minister’s arrival, I politely declined and explained the risks.
Is it doable? Of course, the historic, bustling 17th-century street market located in Old Delhi, India and built by the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan, is merely 10 kilometres (km) away from where we were staying in New Delhi.
But when a capital city is on high alert for a major global gathering, wandering too far from where the actual work is taking place is not exactly the wisest move.
For foreigners, distance can often seem like the obvious measure of how long it takes to get from one point to another.
In Delhi, it is not.
Distance is only half the equation, circumstances, traffic and, most importantly, security arrangements matter.
During the course of our coverage, there were several moments when we genuinely wondered whether we would make it on time.
Road closures, diversions and the city’s notorious traffic chaos were hardly helpful.
Two-lane roads have a peculiar habit of becoming three or even four lanes, with vehicles squeezing into every available inch of gap.
While the leaders’ movements were carefully choreographed and made as seamless as possible, for the journalists covering them, it was a different story.
Still, somehow, we made it at the nick of time.
On another occasion, after the Prime Minister’s send-off at the Air Force Station (AFS), Palam, for his next working visit to Keralam at 2.15pm local time on Sept 13, we thought we would make it back to the hotel within an hour and perhaps have a little time to breathe before heading home the next day.
The distance between AFS and the hotel was only about 16km and typically would have taken between 45 minutes and an hour.
Slightly over three hours later, we joked that it was highly likely that the Prime Minister’s aircraft might arrive in the coastal town in south India before us at the hotel.
And it is exactly what happened.
The air-conditioning in our vehicle was struggling to compete with the scorching Delhi heat, and by the time we finally reached the hotel after almost five hours, we were too exhausted to even think about leisure time.
As a foreign correspondent then, and as a journalist returning to cover the summit now, that is part of the fascination.
The city retained the ability to make even the most elaborate plans collide beautifully or collapse with the wonderfully unpredictable reality of everyday life, with or without a big stage.
A summit such as BRICS is supposed to be about grand strategies, geopolitical trends, trade, security, the shifting balance of power and the future of a world becoming increasingly multipolar.
Leaders arrive surrounded by layers of protocol and protection, moving through carefully choreographed spaces designed to project order, authority and control.
And then there is Delhi.
A city of more than 23 million people that refuses to be entirely choreographed.
The contrast is almost poetic.
Inside conference rooms, leaders discuss the forces reshaping the global order.
Outside, millions of ordinary Delhiites simply try to get to work, get home, catch a train or navigate a road that has suddenly been closed because a motorcade is passing.
That is the real city behind the summit.
And perhaps that is why returning after 12 years feels so revealing.
The essential character of New Delhi remains remarkably intact.
It is still impatient, chaotic, ambitious and can sometimes be extremely exhausting.
There is an old temptation when covering a major international summit to focus only on the visiting dignitaries, be they presidents, prime ministers or both at the same time, whose movements dominate the news cycle.
But cities have a way of putting those moments into perspective.
Twelve years after I first covered this city, perhaps that is what strikes me most.
Delhi does Delhi.
Some things change at the speed of geopolitics, others move at the speed of Delhi traffic.
-- BERNAMA