A mysterious black box offloaded from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s chopper cavalcade a few days ago during a campaign rally in Chitradurga led to intense speculation, with the Congress party tweeting and demanding a probe into it.
With everyone talking about it, the Chitradurga district BJP has finally come out with a clarification: the box had electronic equipment and party logos to be set up on the dais for the prime minister’s speech during the rally.
Hitting out at KPCC President Dinesh Gundu Rao’s tweet that the Election Commission must probe into it, KS Naveen, President of the Chitradurga unit of the BJP, told DH that the tweet was a testimony to the sense of desperation within the state Congress.
“Being a president of the state unit of a national party, if he (Dinesh Gundu Rao) does not know what is part of the PM’s convoy, he should immediately resign from his office. As they are out of power for five years now, they seem to have forgotten about the security provided for the Prime Minister,” said Naveen.
Explaining about the black box, Naveen said the box was “part of the SPG unit and contained teleprompter and other equipment to deck up the dais for PM’s speech”.
“A set of teleprompters, their cables, party logos to be fixed on to the dais and synchronization unit was all present in the box,” said Naveen.
According to him, the box was carried in one of the three choppers and the SPG personnel (4 technicians) had to carry the box to the stage in less than 10 minutes, the duration in which the PM is normally greeted by dignitaries and party leaders.
“If the vehicle is part of the 13-vehicle convoy, then it is highly impossible to reach the stage and set it up for the PM’s speech. It was entirely handled by the SPG and technical team of PMO and all the vehicles were sanitised by the district police guided by the Central Range IG,” said Naveen.
According to Chitradurga BJP leaders, a total of 22 vehicles were hired by the district unit of the party and all the vehicles were examined by the district police and taken into their possession a day before the event.
“How can a private vehicle break such elaborate security arrangement and come close to the chopper of the PM? The Congress leaders must use their common sense even if they were to allege something against the PM. Forget probe, their claims does not even warrant a casual look,” Naveen said.
The teleprompter had beamed notes about the regional issues that Modi extensively used in his speech to attack the ruling coalition of Congress-JDS in Karnataka.
“Sometimes it may not be possible for the PM to remember names and regional projects as he will be criss-crossing the country on the same day. The notes can be read on the teleprompter screen by the PM while for others it may look like a set of mirrors,” explained an office-bearer of the state BJP.
