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Opinion
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| How did two youngsters manage to hide tear gas canisters in their shoes | | | |
In India, there are certain buildings, structures and installations which are fortresses and are among the most secure places, not only in India but, arguably, even in the world. The Parliament building is one of these. It is the temple of our democracy, a beacon of the strength and power of 140 crore Indians. The new Parliament building, inaugurated earlier this year, is believed to be more secure than the earlier one.
So, when on Wednesday, two people breached the entire security apparatus, intruded in the main hall of Parliament and almost reached the well, before they were overpowered by some Members of Parliament and the wards of the parliament security staff, they exposed a major flaw in a security system which is otherwise extremely robust.
The incident, which is an egg on the face of our security establishment, took place merely hours after the entire Parliament, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Vice President Jagdeep Dhankar, paid tributes to the martyrs of the Parliament attack on December 13, 2001.
Given the significance of the day, authorities would have expectedly thrown a security blanket in and around the Parliament house. That the two intruders managed to reach it, despite such a security cover, is a scathing comment on the security and intelligence services responsible for the task.
The government was quick to respond to the situation and has constituted a high-level inquiry committee to find out what had happened and what went wrong. Just like every other high-level committee, this one will surely find out what went wrong and corrective measures will then be implemented as per its recommendations. But the question that needs to be answered is how the breach happened in the first place. A more horrific and sinister incident had taken place in the past and an inquiry commission was set up then too, which had given clear suggestions and mandates with regards to how arrangements need to be made to ensure that there is no repetition. How, then, did a breach occur again? This is the main question. Those responsible should be punished. Heads will have to roll, and an entire overhaul of the security structure will have to be undertaken.
As per the preliminary information available through the media, a total of four persons have been arrested. One is a person by the name of Amol Shinde, a native of the Chakur village in Latur district of Maharashtra. Another is Sagar Sharma – an entry pass for the visitors’ gallery bearing his name and signed by a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Member of Parliament (MP) from Mysore was reportedly found on him. Apparently, it was based on this that he got entry into the gallery.
If this is true, how did these intruders manage to get an entry pass signed by an MP from Mysore? How did two youngsters manage to hide tear gas canisters in their shoes and enter the building and almost reach the sanctum sanctorum of India’s democracy?
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