Patna ground report: Narendra Modi's rally as I saw it

Patna: It was around 11.30 am. I was chatting with BJP president Rajnath Singh in his suite in Maurya Hotel along with three other journalists, near the roundabout of Narendra Modi’s Hunkar rally venue, Gandhi Maidan in Patna.

The window of the hotel suite had a clear view of the crowd filling every inch of the historic Gandhi maidan. The sound of a blast suddenly startled all of us.

At this point, the blast at Patna railway station had already taken place, and we had also heard that that one innocent passenger had died.

It was inferred that the blast was not intended to cause direct damage, but instead cause a stampede where 11 special trains and 8 regular trains carrying attendees of the rally were arriving at frequent intervals.

Back in Rajnath Singh’s suite a fellow journalist rushed to the window. He saw business as usual in the maidan, with a speaker addressing the gathering crowds. Rajnath Singh remained unfazed. We dismissed it as a fire cracker. Minutes later we decided to move on to the actual venue, Gandhi Maidan.

As we entered the ground and were walking to the designated area for the media, we heard another blast and saw smoke coming out from the left end of  the Maidan, right across the district control room office.

Amid cries of “its a bomb!”, some policemen ran to that area. We stood still. Then we heard another blast. A person standing next to us, started shouting there was a pipe bomb here. The ‘information’ started flowing thick and fast. A grenade has also been found. Someone must see. Cameras must see.

A fellow journalist wryly remarked that this was the level of rumour mongering.

Then speakers from the podium started cautioning, “Don’t explode fire crackers. It is creating confusion. We please request you to not to use crackers. This must stop.”

There was indeed some commotion inside the ground. The speakers on the podium perhaps knew by then that it was an actual blast but didn’t want to abort their own rally or cause a stampede by creating panic.

My colleagues covering the rally for Firstpost, called to ask me about the situation. As we spoke another blast took place. I told my colleague that I could see smoke,  but then I could also see a few injured people being rushed to hospital in an ambulance. I said however that it was likely that this could a fire cracker and repeated what was being announced from the stage.

On reflection,  I think that was also an attempt not to panic and help myself to do the job at hand, despite the fact that low intensity blasts were taking place all around us.

The last blast took place after Modi had arrived and Rajnath Singh was speaking. But the rally continued as if nothing had happened.

It was only after Modi had finished his speech and gave his Vande matram chants that we got an inkling that all was not well.

“No one should be harmed while you return. You must exercise restraint and caution so that no one is harmed. We are peace loving people and peace must be maintained at all cost", he said.

As we came out of the maidan, a police officer confirmed that five blasts had taken place, and that some live bombs had also found.

Furthermore, we heard that at least five people had been killed and another ten injured.

Incidentally, one bomb had exploded at the very place that a few of us had been standing this very morning. It had killed one person, and injured a few others. It was then that I realised the magnitude of these “Sutli” bomb blasts.

Half an hour later, we got to know that a live bomb had also been found below the dais, while another five live bombs had been found in the middle of the ground.

At this point, I was not dismissing anything as mere rumour and made a  few calls to confirm. They said this was still being ascertained.

At 5.15 pm as I file this story, another blast has gone off in Gandhi Maidan. The noise was loud. From where I sit, on the fifth floor of the Maurya Hotel convention room, I can see the fire and smoke at the maidan. The bomb was perhaps buried inside some waste below the ground.

What the blasts have done is show that a bitter 2014 Lok Sabha election campaign has also become bloodied. These are early trends, so there is every possibility that the situation can get worse if authorities do not get cracking now. It could be mischief, it could be organised, it could be handiwork of some loose or rouge elements. Whatever it may be, it is surely most worrisome.

The rally was a huge event for the BJP and the discussions were due to be centred around whether or not it had changed the political discourse in Bihar. But as of this evening, headlines have changed.

I had started to work a bit awkwardly in the morning. A friend called at around 8 am. “If you have to reach Gandhi Maidan for Narendra Modi rally, you must start now. There is no public transport and there is an emerging human sea on the roads. I thought I must call and warn of what you about to face, a long walk.”

The place of my stay was around 8 km away from Gandhi Maidan. Taking a car or a cab was ruled out, so I looked for a rickshaw, manual or auto. I couldn’t find anything. So I walked. On the way I could hear enthusiastic chatter among some residents and passers by about the rally. Two km down the road, I saw a stream of people, which turned into a wave, pushing us all along towards the venue of the rally.

The other thing that I could gather through this rather educative walk was that the people there didn’t seem like a crowd who had been mobilised by the lure of money, food or travel to Patna but a conviction in Modi. (Although some others had equally strong passion against him.)

As I reached early, I had an opportunity to meet to with BJP President Rajnath Singh at Maurya Hotel, on the roundabout of Gandhi Maidan. Looking out of his windows to Maidan, he declared that this was going to be the biggest political rally in the entire country.

The size and response to thi srally would surely unnerve Modi’s political rivals. But those are about the numbers of win and loss. With lives lost, the equations and metrics have changed.

The rally was, if nothing else, certainly a security failure.