Southern States - Tamil Nadu-Chennai   

Security cordon for CM throws IT interviews out of gear

By S. Shivakumar

CHENNAI DEC. 1. The State Government's avowed policy of attracting major IT companies to Chennai to offer the best resources got a rude jolt today with interviews by the Oracle Corporation at the Taj Coromandel hotel here thrown out of gear by security arrangements for the Chief Minister.

Hundreds of young computer professionals, including a large number of girls, who had come for a `walk-in' interview conducted by the company, were prevented from entering the hotel for more than an hour from 10 a.m. as the Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa, was attending a symposium at the venue.

Apart from the candidates who had come from all over the country for placements in Bangalore, the hotel guests were also put to severe hardship. The police personnel took `control' of the building and even regular guests had a harrowing time.

A hotel guest had the unsettling experience of a police officer banging on his car window, demanding that the vehicle that was allowed to enter the parking area by the security, be removed immediately. The discourteous officer then entered into an argument using coarse language with the visitor.

The young professionals, who aspired to join the Oracle, were the worst hit, and many were forced to while away their time on the road.

"I was rudely shocked, when a policeman, apart from refusing me permission to enter the hotel, also prevented me from standing anywhere near it. We were shooed away into an adjacent parking lot and kept hostage there till about 11 a.m.", said a girl who had come from Bangalore.

"As the postings were for Bangalore, I was keen to attend the interview. My relatives had dropped me at the hotel and had planned to come and pick me up later" she said.

It was a similar story for most candidates who turned up at the venue between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m., with the police having converted the entire area into a `sterile zone'.

Though the company had advertised that candidates could walk in from 9 a.m., they were greeted with a written notice put up by the hotel security personnel that the interview timings had been changed. When an Oracle personnel was contacted at the venue, he merely said "there was a lull for a couple of hours. However, we used the time to process the applications of those who had turned in early."

The rapidly tightening security ring around Ms. Jayalalithaa's meeting venues revived ugly memories of her earlier tenure as Chief Minister between 1991 and 1996.

When she returned to power, the police personnel in their enthusiasm had blocked traffic on the arterial Anna Salai when the Chief Minister came to garland the statue of MGR. However, Ms. Jayalalithaa reacted sharply to this obstruction of the public thoroughfares with a fiat to police personnel not to block the traffic for her sake.

By contrast, not only are severe restrictions imposed on residents in areas where the Chief Minister has engagements, routine policing work _ such as reporting traffic accidents _ is given a holiday during such periods.

Though the functions of the Chief Minister are technically "public" in nature, there is little for the public at many venues: invitation cards have to be carried with identification and covers in which they were sent, and at some places, even that enables only entry into a shamiana outside the function venue _ such as the inauguration of the cobalt therapy unit of the Institute of Obstetrics and Gynaecology where media and other invitees were forced to wait under a shamiana in pouring rain.

At a function in Taramani recently, the security personnel refused to accept the photo accreditation cards issued by the Director of Information and Public Relations to mediapersons.

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