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Politicians and security

THE DEADLY CLAYMORE explosions in Tirupati, the suspected lapses in security, and the probe ordered by the Andhra Pradesh Government into the entire incident have sharpened the focus on the security of politicians and VVIPs across India. Given the complex and risky security environment and the growing number of armed extremist and terrorist organisations operating in different parts of the country, providing security to high profile targets has become a full-time task. This is a major challenge for the police as well as the more specialised security agencies such as the Special Protection Group (SPG), the National Security Guard (NSG), both Central agencies, and the Special Security Groups (SSG) several State Governments have set up. The legislation under which the SPG was constituted envisaged it only for the Prime Minister. But after the assassination of a former Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi, SPG protection was extended to his widow, Sonia Gandhi, later to become president of the Congress. All other national and State leaders in the `Z' or `Z plus' threat category are protected either by NSG commandos or by the SSGs constituted by State Governments. In providing personal protection or security to leaders under threat, the police face the challenge of preventive as well as proximate security — that is, securing the venues to be visited in advance and providing personal security to the leader.

The inability of the Deep Search Metal Detector (DSMD) to reveal the claymores planted by People's War extremists in Tirupati and the failure to rule out the proximate physical presence of unwanted elements expose the inadequacies of the existing security mechanism. The very fact that the extremists could plant the claymores on the side of a well-frequented ghat road well in advance — literally letting grass grow under the security agencies' feet — and detonate them with military precision after sighting Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu's bullet-proof car speaks to a perilous state of affairs. Only a manual search, aided by the discovery of lead wires, subsequently resulted in the detection of eight unexploded mines. While a normal landmine blows up under the pressure of a passing vehicle, a claymore mine needs a triggering device to set off the explosion. The Tirupati explosions should serve to enhance threat perceptions — whether the targets that need protection are in Jammu & Kashmir, parts of the North-East, the five Naxalite-affected States, or Tamil Nadu where the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and also certain fundamentalist groups have struck before.

There is of course a downside to all this. Visible security, sterile zones and so forth tend to divide political leaders from the people. Security doctrines say there can be no `50 per cent' or `80 per cent' security — it is either `100 per cent' or nothing. Political compulsions and pressures tend towards a dilution of security, pushing it down towards the `50 per cent' mark. While security agencies have to be on eternal alert and succeed all the time, a militant or terrorist group needs only one opportunity to strike a deadly blow. In the real world, `total security' might well turn out to be a pipedream. Given the ease with which armed extremists in Andhra Pradesh and also the North-East and terrorists in J & K strike at chosen targets, preventive security needs more attention, without compromising on proximate security. This, of course, calls for complete cooperation from the VVIP protected. As for the resources, while the Centre must offer technical assistance and enable the acquisition of state-of-the-art security equipment, it is ultimately left to the States and their police to take responsibility for protecting whoever needs protection. There has to be new thinking on the training of specialised, high performance security groups, keeping in mind the precise threat perceptions and the nature of the groups operating in each State.

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