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| Justify security cover | | |
Keeping Personal Security Officers, whether there is a security threat or not, has become an unpreventable fashion not only in Jammu and Kashmir but across the country. If list of the people who have been provided with these PSOs is made public, those who sanction the deployments will have hard times to defend their decisions. There are umpteen examples where undeserving people have been provided with the security cover or the security men on duty have been found literally sleeping. That a fake TV journalist arrested recently in Jammu on abduction and rape charges is a case in point. It is the conflict situation in Jammu and Kashmir and other parts of country which threw up this fashion of PSOs but the entire concept has been mostly misused. The journalistic maxim that “one picture speaks a thousand words” found emphatic articulation in last Sunday’s newspapers that splashed a photograph of a candidate for the Lok Sabha poll in Amritsar pedalling hard on a bicycle with the policeman provided as a personal security officer (PSO) perched on the carrier. It so eloquently exposed the sham that passes off as “security”. Indeed the police authorities ~ not just in the city of the Golden Temple but all across the country ~ ought to be thoroughly ashamed of themselves. For even if the man in question was written off as a “non-serious candidate”, the fact remains that a certain threat had been perceived to his safety. Was he not the proverbial sitting duck? In fact he risked being shot by his bodyguard: had he “hit” a pothole the latter’s weapon could easily have gone off. This is not an isolated case of ineptitude. Years ago an Akali leader in Delhi woke up late one night to find his PSO fast asleep, his weapon not far away ~ he moved the bolt-action rifle to a more secure position but permitted his protector uninterrupted slumber! No wonder that some “alert” politicians reject PSOs, concluding that they only attract unwanted attention. Of course many more seek bodyguards who serve as both status symbol and personal aide. That this is no laughing matter confined to the increased demands of election season would be underscored by recalling that when a notorious Punjab terrorist gunned down the former army chief, General AS Vaidya, not a shot was fired in return by the PSO in the car ~ the cop ducked for cover. And the man under whose command Operation Bluestar was conducted was surely provided top-drawer coverage. Clearly, every police force needs to create a core group of well-trained PSOs who do their job sans needless display. Now that the Union home minister has taken the lead in revamping the entire security system, the states could be funded as well as persuaded/pressured into making PSOs professionally effective. When Julius Ribeiro was ambassador in Romania he once came under attack, his assailants were quickly overpowered ~ the “super cop” then confessed that until that moment he had not been aware of being protected. That should serve as a benchmark.
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