Shades of Gray

A few days back, the security of PM’s residence was very much in the news. Reason: Two girls decided to pay the PM a visit. Reaction: It made for prime time news, a few denials and the two damsels losing their jobs. 

But the issue that was lost amidst all these was what security the citizens can hope for when the PM himself is so insecure. On Thursday 27th July, three youngsters breached the security cordon at the Prime Minister’s offcial residence, i.e., 7 Race Course Road. Yogita Khatwani from Jaipur, along with Veena Chaudhari and AC mechanic Md. Imran drove up to the main gate in a black Sonata with the security personnel outside the main gate letting them in without checking anything. They were turned away at the reception as they had no appointment. After this, Yogita reversed the car, blew kisses to the waiting media outside the gate and drove away.  When the car was returning, the reporters stopped them and asked them the reason for their coming to the PM’s residence, to which they said, “We came to meet the Prime Minister.” On being asked if they had an appointment they said, “No.” 

When asked to disclose their identity Yogita(below right) said, “We are commoners. Can’t we meet the PM?” 

The trio were later intercepted by the Police who booked all three under Section 447 and 419 of the Indian Penal Code for impersonation and trespass.

The media made a big story of this and reported that the three youngsters were drunk. This claimed was later proved to be false when breath-analyzer tests turned out to be negative. However, the poor girls, who later admitted that it was all a prank and realized that they might be heading for serious trouble, lost their jobs. Their employer, Air Sahara, said that it was terminating the services of the two stewardesses and that they had been grounded anyways on charges of indiscipline. While it is agreed that the girls need to be disciplined as in the worst possible scenario they could have lost their lives to the bullets of SPG, the media was wrong in portraying them as the biggest culprits of the story. What was surprising is that the PMO insisted that there was no security breach as visitors are allowed up to the reception area. So far, no action has been taken against the Security personnel and there are chances that they will be allowed to escape punishment. The media should have taken these security men to tasks. What do they mean by saying that there is no checking done till the reception area? Area they going to allow a gun-wielding terrorist till that point before confronting him? The breach in security check cannot be taken lightly, especially as a Cabinet meeting was underway when this incident happened in a highly guarded zone. These are questions that the media must have asked and followed up on instead of focusing entirely on the girls.

 The Prime Minister’s office should be obliged to the media and these now former air-hostesses for exposing the weakness in the security at the Prime Minister’s residence and alerting them before any mishap can take place. When our PM is so insecure, can we really trust the state machinery to save the lives of ordinary citizens from terrorist attacks that keep happening every now and then?

This is a question that the media, the SPG and the Government need to ask themselves.