Insecurity indifference

 

 

Are there lessons for India to be learnt from the American political leadership? Well, consider this: on November 2, while returning from the foundation stone laying ceremony of a steel plant in Salboni in West Midnapore, the convoys of the Chief Minister of West Bengal and Union Ministers for Steel were attacked by suspected Maoists by triggering a landmine. Immediately after that, both the central ministers started clamouring for upgradation of their security cover and blamed the lackadaisical approach of the state government. While the reports stated that Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan’s security might be upgraded to the Z-plus category, next day's press release from Minister of State for Steel Jitin Prasada urged the Home Ministry to take up the issue, it stated, "The media has so far wrongly reported that CM’s convoy was hit by this blast. The state police and the state PR machinery also wrongfully projected it as an attack on the CM. On the one hand, the state administration has projected this incident as an attack on the CM, while on the other; they were totally lax and inconsiderate about the security of the Union Ministers."

In hindsight, it is unfortunate that while our Union ministers were simply concerned about increasing their security cover, one could hardly see them angry about the fact that how far the anti-national elements of this country have gone and how the state machinery has increasingly become helpless in curbing them. So in times to come, while our honourable ministers would roam around in the heart of India’s political capital, guarded by elite commandos of the National Security Guard (who could be otherwise better used for anti-terror operations), the state of affair in places like Salboni and many others would continue to be dismal and be completely at the mercy of Maoists.

India often takes pride in clubbing itself with the US as brothers for being the largest and the oldest democracies respectively, yet one wonders whether it can ever happen in a US that the convoy of the Governor of a US State could be attacked in such a brazen manner the way it happened on the 2nd of November, or the way it generally happens in every terror struck state of India. Yet India's polity perennially remain mute and indifferent to this threat.

This is perhaps where the difference lies between supposedly the largest democracy and the best democracy. Be it Obama or Bush, be it the Democrats or the Republicans, whoever is at the helm of the affairs in the US and, whatever be their policies towards India, nothing would perhaps change drastically in India till the time the real changes are done by our present and future leaders.

Only when India's polity would have its blood boiling at the audacity of the Maoists and terrorists and would try to prioritise India’s internal security over ministers' personal security, the day they would write letters to the Prime Minister to go for an all-out war against the anti- national elements (and not for upgradation of their own security), only that day would India’s real development story would start to unfold.