One of the photographs taken by freelancer Arvind Tengse shows the President testing the Goa waters on Tuesday

Jan. 5: The photographs showed President Pratibha Patil relaxing on a Goa beach in her usual sari but, horror of horrors, sharing the frame with foreign tourists in bikinis and swimming trunks.

Reason enough for Indian police to summon three photojournalists for questioning today.

Eventually, Margao sub-divisional police officer Umesh Gaonkar gave The Telegraph the good tidings over the phone: “Although they seem to be so in the pictures, the foreigners were not that close to the President.”

Phew, close shave!

Not that the police had not smelt trouble when they realised that Patil was going to make an unscheduled visit to the beach yesterday afternoon. It asked the hotel to keep the foreigners out of the beach in Benaulim, south Goa.

“But the hotel expressed its inability, saying the foreign guests had booked the accommodation long in advance and travelled all the way,” Gaonkar said.

Earlier, Gaonkar had sternly rebuked newspaper photographers Ganadeep Sheldekar and Soiru Komarpant and freelancer Arvind Tengse, saying that clicking the President was prohibited as she was on a private visit.

Bill and Hillary Clinton on a beach in 1998 when they were the US First Couple

The Indian squeamishness contrasts with the American practice of using presidential holidays as photo-ops to earn brownie points (unlike the Indian President, the US First Citizen needs popular support).

For instance, Bill Clinton had gladly let himself be photographed in swimming trunks, embracing his swimsuit-clad wife Hillary, and Barack Obama had flaunted his abs last year to show they were “regular guys” in the prime of health.

This year, though, with the economy and public opinion on the downside, Obama has taken care to be snapped doing serious stuff such as going to church or playing golf during his recent Hawaiian retreat. When the Obama family went snorkelling, photographers were kept at bay to avoid any shirtless pictures.

Gaonkar denied that the police had registered a case against the photojournalists or held a formal inquiry into a possible security breach.

“It was an informal questioning to find out how the photographers managed to shoot the pictures despite being kept away,” he said. He had checked their equipment and recorded their statements.

Patil had suddenly tweaked her schedule to arrive at the Taj Exotica hotel from the Panjim Raj Bhavan, where she had been staying since her arrival in Goa on January 3.

The three photojournalists had been on the beach to capture actor Amitabh Bachchan, who was a guest at the same hotel with his family and grandchildren.

“The President stepped out of the hotel around 12.15pm and spent some time on a sunbathing chair on the beach. She sat there while her husband (Devisingh Shekhawat) went on a (water) skiing ride,” Tengse told this newspaper.

“She then wanted to take a ride in a small boat that can carry five-six people. So, the police had to get a dog squad and check the boat. After spending 45 minutes on the beach, she went back to the hotel for lunch, and was in the hotel till 4pm.”

Patil is scheduled to leave Goa tomorrow.

Tengse’s pictures showed the President wearing sunglasses and enjoying the beach atmosphere with tourists moving closely around her.

“Gaonkar asked us about our cameras and the lenses we had used. It’s simple. Although we were at least 200 metres from the President, we used 80-400mm zoom lens.”

The South Goa Association of Photojournalists has lodged a protest with Gaonkar.

A Rashtrapati Bhavan source in Delhi said it had nothing to do with the police enquiries. It’s not known if the President is annoyed at being clicked, but her sudden visit did cause a stir and sent some celebrity guests scurrying back into the hotel.

Amitabh Bachchan, who enjoyed water jet ski rides with grandson Agastya Nanda, tweeted that “media and crowds hurried us back…”.

In another tweet, he wrote: “The young man gets shy of crowds… was loving the water… till!!?? So had to return. The President came over for a visit to Hotel.”

The Taj Exotica’s 140 rooms and six kinds of villas include two presidential villas, the hotel’s website says.