Foreign body

Here is more evidence of the disruptive impact of the President of Indias elaborate security protocol. A foreign embassy representative of one of the countries organising the International Engineering Trade Fair at New Delhis Pragati Maidan discovered to her chagrin that she was barred from entering the premises until the president had finished inaugurating it. In vain did she wave her embassy identity card and explain that she was on the organising committee and had been delayed because she had had to walk from a distant car park owing to security restrictions on vehicle movement to the fair ground. Like other ordinary visitors, she was only let through when the president had left.