"I am the one who fears to board the train or a bus for the fear of being bombed, I am the one whose wife has doubts about the safety return of her husband from work because of the terror attacks in the country, I am a bloody common man" screamed the main protagonist of the critically acclaimed movie "A Wednesday", while speaking out his fears the protagonist also pointed out to the loop holes in the system of government. Ironically few months after the release of this movie there was the infamous 26/11 attack in Mumbai that shook not only this Democratic country but the whole world. It kind of show casted the prevailing Loopholes and the failure of the Indian Intelligence and most importantly the lack of preparedness to deal with such an emergency.
Now as the country is heading for the first anniversary of the dastardly act there is one question which is being raised by millions and is doing rounds "How safe are we Now??"
The question kind of still remains unanswered. But there are lot more questions to be answered, "How prepared are we to prevent occurrence of such incidents in future?" "Why does India always wake up only after an emergency rather than preparing for it?" "Why are we so careless about the security of our own country?"
Discussions, meetings, plannings, strategies are being drafted out at a very diplomatic level, and definitely there is an action plan taking place.
But let me focus your attention to the basic grass root level. I quote from my own personal experience. The place in question is one of the historically renowned major tourist destination and a major port city.
I was deployed as an Engineer on one of the passenger ships that plies between Island and the Main- land. As is the usual professional custom i was transferred from my present ship to another Passenger ship. The Jetties (place where ships are made fast and passengers embark/disembark) of the two ships were quite far away (about 2-3 kms) and the jetties had different entrance and securities. I signed off from my present ship to join the ship to which i was being transferred. Since the ships halted in the port for 2 days..i began to shift my luggage one by one and i started moving between the jetties quite often.
I had a letter from the company addressed to the security officer in-charge stating full details of company i was employed with and the ship name to which i was being transferred.
With a fully loaded bag on my shoulder and a hand kit i was fully confident of being stopped by the security for my identity, so i had the letter and passport ready in my pocket. But much to my surprise i just walked through the gate chatting non-chalantly over the phone with not a single security personnel bothering to stop me for questioning my identity nor checking the contents of my baggage. This is at the jetty where hundreds of passenger ships are made fast.
I made at least 3 rounds between the two jetties to shift my luggage completely and moved around with an air of prestige and without being questioned anywhere.
When i started sailing on my newly posted ship, which was basically a tourist ship and the passengers were mainly tourist ,a small percentage of them being foreigners, I had an opportunity to interact with them, the topic of discussion was very general, limited to the country they came from, how they felt being on a holiday in our country and the likes.
As curiosity would have it i used to ask about the security checks they had to undergo before boarding the ship, to my surprise they had no such formalities. All the passengers brought tickets at the entrance of the jetty and boarded the ship like they board a bus in the bus stand.
it didn't end here, there was no limit to where i could move around inside the port premises, I even managed to enter the most sensitive area of dry-dock(where ships are taken out of water and repaired) with the security guard opening the barricade and making way for me just by seeing me in uniform.
I had a free tour of all the ships that were undergoing repairs and unlimited access to Engine room and the Navigating wheel house.
This is the situation post 26/11. I hope you who have been reading this have a similar story of "The great Indian Loophole". The same question haunts me again and again "Why such a careless attitude about security of our own country?" "Why are we giving a chance for another disaster to happen and lament about it later??"
I wish I could get an answer before its too late.........................
