The Leader of Opposition Mr. L. K. Advani was in Vashi today as a part of his “Bharat Suraksha Yatra” which he is currently on. So what did he hold for us, other than his “Yada Yada” speech that I bet we all know about.

Well for starters he was supposed to reach Vashi by 10:30 AM wind up his speech by 11:00 AM and move on to another location in Navi Mumbai. So when did he arrive, a cool 1 hr 25 minutes late at 11:55 AM. They had his welcome & other yada yada stuff done and then gave a speech of 20 minutes and did a “Tata Bye Bye” at 12:25 PM. If you are thinking that we had suffered enough then you are wrong. Most of us didn’t care, the only ones waiting there were the local BJP workers & the local press (no National Media, it seems they are not interested in his Yatra Business anymore). Whereas all the locals were waiting for him to leave that’s it.

The reasons for people wanting him to leave were plenty. As it is he was holding his Yatra Rally at the most busiest junction on Navi Mumbai, the “Shivaji Chowk in Sector 17”. If that wasn’t enough a radius of 1 KM was cordoned off for vehicular traffic, and 100 meters around the stage was literally a “No Man’s Land”. Sector 17 is the commercial heart of Navi Mumbai where a 300 sq. ft. shop on rent will cost you at least Rs 50,000 a month.

The official cordon off time was give as 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM, just 2 hrs of inconvenience. What it turns out is that roads were cordoned off at 9:00 AM in the morning, when everyone’s in a big hurry to leave, and opened up at 1:00 PM, so that’s a cool inconvenience of 4 hrs.

And now the police security. We had 600 policemen & women manning the streets from God know what time in the morning. They even had their personnel at roof tops and places. If that’s not enough he had a convoy of 10 cars, his very own mini luxury bus lead by a police jeep and followed by a van full of police personnel. Well during the recent rioting in Navi Mumbai we didn’t even have these many police personnel for the security of lakhs in Vashi. That’s how important he is!!!

All this meant that a usual 5 minutes, 1.5 KM ride from my home to my cousin’s shop took me about 15 minutes, just trying to find a way into sector 17 on my good old 60 cc moped Sunny Zip. And my bro in his car took him a cool 45 minutes. One could literally have started a game of Cricket there, with no one to bother. It’s not even that empty during bands. A bus ride from the railway station to the other end of Vashi that takes about 30 minutes, took an ultra cool 1½ hrs at least in a bus/car.

The most common reaction from the common man was:

“He will come here for half an hour, but has already spoilt our whole day.”

So that leaves me with a question.

When all this stuff is meant for the betterment of people & country. Why do it at their very own cost???

And Oh Ya, I didn’t sweat it out in the sun all the time & didn’t hear his speech, was sitting in my cousin’s air conditioned shop ;).