Reminiscences of a chance meeting with the US president

Reminiscences of a chance meeting with the US president
A. N. Dar

As Indian and American intelligence officers make a fetish of the easures that must be taken to protect President Clinton, I am reminded of the little security that was provided to him when I saw him as a bystander in the United States. That was one afternoon in Washington on a Christmas eve at the Central Station, the hub of railway traffic in the American capital. Clinton had gone there shopping for Christmas presents.

Central Station is a beehive of activity. It has become one of the landmarks of Washington, a picnic place, something one had to see while on a visit to the capital city like the Air and Space Museum or the Kennedy Centre. It was there about four years ago that I found Clinton shopping for Christmas. I and my family were there for a visit.

At the base of the overbridge reaching Central Station we found two police motorcycles parked there and their riders standing alongside. They seemed to be waiting for someone. Soon we found two or three motorcars coming in and going into the station. In one of the cars were President Clinton and his daughter Chelsea.

They walked into one of the shops. President Clinton went round the place with the shop assistants following him. When it became known that the President was there, many people stopped outside the store. About five hundred people collected there. When the crowd gathered, there appeared no more than half a dozen plainclothes security men. There were also three or four photographers. I cannot say if there were any reporters. One could go into the store but since there were quite a few people, not many walked in. Clinton was inside for nearly half an hour.

There was no pushing of the crowd. No one was searched. There were no big metal detectors. One of the security men had a hand-held metal detector but he did not use it. The only measure the security men resorted to was to stretch a plastic tape along which the crowd stood.

This in a country where in recent years one President (John Kennedy) had been shot dead and another (Ronald Reagan) had been shot at. I was reminded of a time when President Eisenhower had come to India and I was covering his visit. In my enthusiasm I jumped across the red carpet over which Eisenhower had to walk after a few minutes. A six-foot American security man held me by the arm so strongly to draw me back that for many days my limb ached. Here no one panicked like that.

This lack of security was also how I came to be in the visitor's gallery of the Senate. I and my companion went to a Senator's office for a visitor's pass. His staff did not even ask my name or address. With the pass, going from one queue to another, I was soon in the visitor's gallery and could be there as long as I wanted.

At the Central Station I and my family found ourselves in the front row of the crowd as everyone waited for Clinton to come out. I walked to the other side with a camera to take pictures along with the other photographers. No one asked if I had been cleared by security.

When the President came out with his daughter with the packets, his personal security men took away the parcels. He went on shaking hands. He warmly shook our hands. Almost everyone was saying ``Happy Christmas''. My wife dressed in a sari said ``Happy Christmas from India.'' By then Clinton had gone many steps ahead. When he heard these words, he came back. He could easily know who the Indians were. He put his hands on our shoulders and repeated ``Bless you, bless you.''

In a few minutes he was gone. The crowd dispersed. That is how we saw President Clinton in a way few would see him in India.