Yes they were, as NDTV said with unnerving regularity, in a “protected zone”. May be shoot at sight orders apply in that area, although the PMO’s press release seemed to indicate otherwise. Of course, some cops forgot their basics. But none of this demanded the peculiar combination of funereal seriousness and gleeful moralising I saw on NDTV.

The girls were interrogated with a sternness rarely seen when TV journalists interview politicians. They were asked whether their parents knew where they were, they were asked whether they were aware of the grave transgression they had committed, they were asked whether they had thought of getting a lawyer. And when NDTV was taking a break from airing these “exclusive” interviews, its correspondent was keeping the tempo up with his sheer indignation. I changed channels when NDTV got an ex-IB director to discuss the threat to the PM’s security.

And I saw that almost every major channel, like NDTV, couldn’t get enough of the girls blowing kisses and almost all camerapersons had decided that the protagonists deserved a head-to-toe slow pan.

I don’t know many things. But I know tabloid TV when I see it.