Sometimes, a paranoia for security can undo in one swift stroke all the great work done to facilitate travel. Earlier this year, I travelled to Chhattisgarh for the second Sirpur Music and Dance Festival. A prestige tourism draw for the state&rsquos tourism board, it went off reasonably well. The performers were great, and the ambience of ancient Sirpur was just fantastic.
Then came the day for a drive to Raipur, 100 km away, to catch a flight to Delhi. We started off peacefully enough, joining the main national highway to the capital, along with many vehicles moving in that direction. Some 60km from the city, in the middle of nowhere, a young policeman suddenly leaped onto the road and started waving all vehicles to the side. Why Because the Governor&rsquos convoy was headed towards Sirpur. When would it cross He didn&rsquot know.
People were travelling to Raipur for various reasons &mdash to catch a train or a flight, going to a wedding and in one case, an ambulance was taking a very ill person to a specialty hospital. Still, most Chhattisgarhis were used to such high-handed behaviour and took it in relatively good humour. We&rsquod been here for a good 20 minutes, and still the policeman didn&rsquot know, even though he was constantly on the wireless speaking to his colleagues further up the road. After half an hour, people started to get restive. Finally, the people in the ambulance tried to reason with the policeman. They had a critically ill patient. Couldn&rsquot they pass The policeman shoved them away, saying that they should have chosen a different day for the transit.
At this the dam burst. All the vehicles started their engines, and despite a couple of other policemen joining the fray, the civilian convoy resumed the journey. After about 15km, the governor&rsquos convoy came into view &mdash some ten vehicles, full of security personnel bristling with guns. They must have figured something wasn&rsquot going according to plan, for they started waving their guns at us and shouting to get out of the way, even though there was enough space for both the &lsquoconvoys&rsquo to pass. And pass they did, with the commandoes screaming obscenities at us and threatening us with dire consequences. And tourism boards of paranoid states wonder why they don&rsquot get tourists.
