When the power went out four minutes into President Droupadi Murmu's speech at the convocation of her hometown Mayurbhanj district's Maharaja Sriram Chandra Bhanja Deo University, it revealed severe security flaws at the location and threats to the First Citizen during travels.
Security experts questioned why President Murmu wasn't quickly removed from the location as the Odisha government and the university initiated separate investigations to determine how the power wires tripped for a full nine minutes, throwing the entire indoor hall into darkness.
The President continued speaking while asking the audience whether they could hear her as her security guards took up positions in front of the dais and security staff switched to night-vision equipment to check admission and exit points. While the microphone and air conditioner were operating, there was discussion of sabotage.
Former DGP Prakash Mishra said it was surprising that the potential threat (the audience side) was in the dark, while the dignitary was the lone face visible because of a dim light. “This should be the other way round. The audience is the perceived threat side, and they should be in the light and the dignitary should be in the dark. It is very risky to expose the dignitary to light when the entire hall was pitch-dark,” he said.
The President tweaked a popular Robert Frost poem to suit the situation: “Andhar Jetiki, Aloka Setiki ehe je gahana bana, chalibi chalibi na padi bi thaki, bujiba agaru aakahi”, which loosely translates to “Light and darkness exist in equal measure. The woods are deep and dark, I will persist and keep walking until I fall asleep. ”
“One has to take light and darkness in the same stride,” she said in the dark before an audience of a thousand.