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Officially unofficial security
arrangements are norm at Golden Temple
WSN Network
 Amritsar:
Innocous reading news items about presence of Punjab Policemen
inside Sikh religious places routinely appear in Indian newspapers
and have stopped getting the attention that they deserve. Just
before Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was to visit the Golden Temple
in a Thanksgiving visit after his successful surgery, news items
about preparation for the visit mentioned with a straight face that
metal detectors
have been placed at entry points of the Shiromani Gurdwara
Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) complex and "plainclothes policemen
deployed inside the
Golden Temple
complex."
It is strange
that the SGPC is ready to close its eyes to the presence of
plainsclothes policemen" inside the gurdwara but will not allow
proper security measures. Everyone knows that the SGPC taskforce
cannot undertake the security of people like the Prime Minister or
the many dignitaries that routinely visit the
Golden Temple.
It officially does not allow security people inside but it is almost
officiallu known that the men in civvies are unofficially permitted
to take positions inside the complex.
What kind of an
arrangement is this right inside the house of God? Whom are we
trying to fool? The sangat or the Akal Purakh?
It is time the
Sikh community engaged with the issue and took some decisions.
Security arrangements for Prime Minister's and other VVIPs' visits
should be well discussed and properly made and not carried out on ad
hoc basis of unofficially official and officially unofficial ways.
Such things only reduce the importance of both: the word of the Sikh
religious domain's administrators and the faith in the security
system.
Can the SGPC be
little more honest and introspect so that we don;t have to read that
cops have been allowed inside the complex though for a good reason
but through questionable arrangements?
On his part, the
prime minister kept his visit low profile even though tight security
measures were in place and the Chief Minister and veteran Akali Dal
leader Parkash Singh Badal turned up to receive him. That the PM did
not chose use the trip to kick-off the Congress poll campaign in the
state was appreciated by the Sikh sangat.
25 March 2009
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