Monday, August 3, 2009

SECURITY or INSECURITY


Must have seen the above pictures last week. Infosys is happy and thankful for the Govt. to provide CISF (Central Industrial Security Force). CISF personnel are happy to lend a helping hand to the Corporates and particularly Infosys.

Infosys chief mentor N.R. Narayana Murthy quoted,
“I would like to thank the central government, the home ministry, and the state government for helping us get the security services of CISF personnel”

CISF Inspector General R.K. Mishra was also elated and elaborated,
“This is for the first time since its creation in 1969 that the CISF will be providing security cover to a corporate organization. We are pleased and proud to be entrusted with the responsibility of security at Infosys.”

“CISF will act as an arms support. Our main task is to delay, deny and neutralize any possible terror strike in Infosys. We'll provide unobtrusive and inclusive security cover, and regular security cover of the Infosys will be done by the existing security personnel of the company.”


Govt. feels that is the best solution, they can offer/give to corporates because of terrorist threats to blow up their business establishments. Do we (as citizen of India) feel is it correct to provide security cover to the Corporates like that? Gradually it will extended to the entire Electronic City. 79 other corporate have sought security cover from Home Ministry for their business establishments.

I am against this idea not because of the costs and expenditure to the Govt. Infosys because of its principles and practices are ready to bear the cost. But do we believe that businesses can be run by holding up like a fortress? Like the dispute in Nandigram, Mr. Buddhdeb Bhattacharya was ready to offer all the support to Ratan Tata and provide police protection to the plant. Mr. Ratan Tata said businesses cannot be run under police security. We are not at WAR.

But the CISF security in front of all the big campus houses creates an atmosphere like that only as if we are fighting the insurgency all the time. I know and understand I have lived in those terrorist active days of Punjab and we had bunkers built of heavy steel outside my colony. As a kid, I questioned my mum why they are always standing there. Are they going to kill us? My mum explained to me that they are here to shield us and provide us security. Somehow over a period of time, we got used to their presence.

To tell you honestly, when the CISF was taken off from that point that was the time when we felt really safe and secure. Their presence brought anxiety and insecurity within us.

Is this what Govt. has in place to provide security to us or the solution they can provide?

This is American way of fighting terrorism. You cannot convert the country into a fortress and then say, yes this is what we have done best for our nation?

I got really uncomfortable with the deployment of armed guards at Churchgate Station after 26/11. I know Govt. is doing this for our security. I could also have been the victim of 26/11. Why can’t we get into process where we can try to ensure and insure that nothing of that sort happens again? Instead the Govt. does not even feel threatened. The presence of armed guards only arouses anxiety and insecurity in our mind and hearts of a citizen.

Taj Mahal Hotel & Palace was under attack on 26/11. Look at the street which houses this Hotel. It was one of the most famous landmark in India and lakhs of people flocked the place daily. It is lonely and desolute, still carrying the marks of 26/11. It is never going to be same again. Due to fear of a terrorist activity in future, the Govt. is victimizing itself and the citizens of this country.

Mr. Ratan Tata can claim and say that they have destroyed the greeting lobby of Taj Hotel for the security of their patrons. They have armed gaurds on one side and metal detectors on the other side. But do they all this, they can make the experience of their guests arriving in sedan cars enjoyable? They have bitterness when they are made to stretch their arms before entering the hotel and pay thousands for a meal.

I don’t know what is the real situation to this problem since it is coming from somewhere else? India always needs to find an Indian solution rather than follow the American way.

I know many may not agree with my opinion. We need to support Pakistan along with some of the international Aid agencies and UN. It is a point of inflexion and may end in a worse position than Afghanistan or Iraq. Where they had dictators with one single approach and focus? But in Pakistan there are radicalists, fundamentalists, revolutionaries, fanatics, pimps, America.

So you see all the monsters are present at one place.

So you need to drive them out, kill them, bully them, sully them or channelize their focus. I don’t know but the approach should be different from the one we are following now.

Thomas Friedman has very aptly said in his last book, Hot, Flat and Crowded a small brief with context to an American embassy in Africa, “where Birds can’t Fly”. America has built its embassy into a fortress on a hill. Nobody can walk into the embassy for a form even. Even if a bird appears in its vicinity it is shot dead to subvert any kind of terrorist activity. Terrorists tried to attack the embassy all they could was strike a jeep of explosives against the lower end of one of the thickest stone walls in the world.

We need to understand, this is not security. It is called INSECURITY. You are alienating yourself from your peers, yourself and the World.

You don’t have windows, you cannot have fresh air. Everything is locked to ward of terrorists. But mind you they are right there in your drawing room, in your minds. Few years down the line we would be fighting with our paranoid minds. The fear in our mind will be intruding our PEACE and LIFE.

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