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Clinton's security detail finds Rashtrapati Bhavan 'unsuitable'

Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi

Agents of the US Central Intelligence Agency and the secret service said the Rashtrapati Bhavan was 'unsuitable' for President Bill Clinton's stay in India. They preferred his lodging at the Maurya-Sheraton hotel here since it would help the security detail of the US president, Indian government officials said today.

The officials said the advance eight-member US security outfit had earlier expressed interest in accepting the Indian offer that President Clinton stay at the imposing Rashtrapati Bhavan on Raisina Hills considering its "strategic isolation and aloofness".

They pointed out that, apart from being extremely well-guarded, Rashtrapati Bhavan had a "tight security detail" which has been praised and admired by many VVIPs who have stayed there in the last four decades.

The Indian authorities also agreed to further upgrade the security detail during Clinton's stay in Rashtrapati Bhavan if their US counterparts gave them the go-ahead.

However, after considering the proposal, the US authorities apparently turned down the Indian offer, saying that Clinton's security detail wasn't quite satisfied.

The team finally zeroed down on the Maurya-Sheraton. Its location and security apparently satisfied Clinton's security personnel, including agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Central Intelligence Agency and the secret service, clinched the issue, it is learnt.

Clinton's strategically positioned suite is to be accessible only through the security detail.

Besides, television cameras are to be put up so that every square inch of the 'forbidden zone' can be watched.

The officials indicated that handpicked sharpshooters would form a human cordon around Clinton whenever he emerged out of his suite during his two-day stay in New Delhi.

Clinton's trip to India and Bangladesh was finalised over two years after it was first conceived. The minutest details are being discussed and debated by experts, especially in the light of the terrorist threat in the region.

Government officials confirmed that their US counterparts in charge of his Indian visit "are very alive" to a possible threat from Saudi-millionaire terrorist Osama bin Laden.

According to the Union ministry of home affairs here, external inimical forces could try to give India a bad image during Clinton's visit.

A joint-secretary level official in the MHA said the Vajpayee government feared that Pakistani elements, aided and abetted by their counterparts in the "Arab world", might create trouble. He said that the concerned countries have been informed that their nationals would not be given visas to visit India during the time of the US president's two-day visit.

Special efforts are to be taken to monitor Pakistani "mischief-makers". Washington too has allegedly warned the leadership in Islamabad that if any evidence is found of Pakistanis trying to create trouble during Clinton's India visit, an extremely serious view would be taken of it.

Earlier, the eight-member US advance outfit had also considered the US embassy premises for the president's stay but had later ruled it out since it could not accommodate Clinton's large security detail, consisting of about 100 officials.

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