In NYC, PM is one among many

When Manmohan Singh arrived in Frankfurt, on his way to the United States, Air India One touched down in the middle of a vast tarmac, the centre of all attention; several dozen black cars, colourful security vans from three agencies, and large numbers of big, intimidating Germans. At Andrews Air Force Base in Washington, DC, the reception was similarly extensive.

When Air India One landed in New York's Kennedy Airport, it was at the back, near a slightly tatty hangar. There were black limousines and a New York Police Department helicopter overhead, but no sanitised perimeter - the contrast was stark.

It was not an insult to India or to Singh. It is merely normal, for New York, and especially New York at this time of year. The end of September is General Assembly Season, and this city is inundated with heads of government. One more, even representing a billion-plus people, is not a big deal to a city that, for a brief while, does look like the capital of the world.

As far as New Yorkers are concerned, it is a blessedly brief time. When the line of dark vans carrying part of the contingent pulled up at a Midtown hotel, dark looks were cast by passers-by at the flag attached to the front windscreen. Heads of government tend to want security, and traffic restrictions, and so on; that causes New Yorkers to be late, and they don't like it. Worse, they have motorcades, and the motorcades have to park in the crowded streets of midtown New York; given that a large part of every citizen's day here is spent looking for a parking spot, this is even more unwelcome.

On Friday, Manmohan Singh sat impassively as ever in the Hall of the UN General Assembly, listening to the Malaysian PM and then Nepal's PM spoke. One thing, perhaps, the PM and Salman Khurshid, sitting next to him, might have noted. Malaysia's PM, Najib Razak - who has just emerged out of a bruising battle with opposition-led street protests - talked at length about the lack of leadership that allowed terrorism to emerge; in the list of terrorist attacks, Pakistan's name came up frequently.

UN General Assembly speeches are rarely memorable. Singh's was not an exception, which surprised nobody. There have been some great ones in the past - Khruschev banging the desk and threatening to bury the West, Hugo Chavez claiming he could smell the devil's sulphur from the podium where George W Bush had spoken the previous day, and as late as last year, Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu drawing a child's cartoon of an atom bomb to impress upon unimpressed delegates the danger posed by a nuclear Iran. But none such were on display yesterday.

But, even by the chaotic standards of the UN, Indian delegations are hard to handle, especially when a prime minister is involved, this correspondent was told. One official complained that there were "simply too many Indians", though it is likely she meant in the delegation, and not in general.

Once, eventually, the Indian delegation was let into the UNGA, there was an audible sigh of disappointment from those who have not seen it before. The famous green marble lectern might lead TV viewers to believe that it is luxurious and impressive, like such buildings usually are. Actually, the marble lectern stands alone in a cavernous basement hall that looks like something in which a small-town North Indian wedding would be organised. There are tatty curtains over low windows, and exposed wiring on the roof. The walls are a blank white. The contrast with the mural-laden environs of the Security Council could not be more stark, a reminder of where the power truly lies in the United Nations. And too many Indians or no, it does not look like it is anywhere close to moving from the harshly lit basement with cheap temporary chairs to more permanent seating in the Council room anytime soon.