Security breach in the highest echelon of power; Glaring negligence or overconfidence?

The morning of December 13, 2001, saw five terrorists entering the Parliament House Complex in a car fitted with a forged Home Ministry sticker on its windshield.

Upon suspicion, the car was forced to turn back, following which the terrorists got down and opened fire.

The firing lasted for over 30 minutes, leaving five terrorists, eight security personnel and a gardener dead, and 15 injured.

L K Advani, the then Home Minister, stated that the attack was executed by Pakistan-based terrorist outfits Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad.

As expected, in a knee jerk reaction a day after the Parliament breach which coincided with the 22nd anniversary of the Parliament attack, stringent measures were put in place in and around the building, with Delhi police and Parliament security staff thoroughly checking the credentials of those entering the complex.

Inside the Parliament campus, no one was not allowed to enter the new building from the Makar Dwar, which is meant for the entry of parliamentarians only, for any other person it would be the Shardul Dwar.

However, when the breach happened, it was only the Makar Dwar which was the common entrance point. According to Delhi police, the Parliament breach on Wednesday was well-coordinated, meticulously planned and carried out by six people, all of whom have been arrested.

The question is, did not the Delhi police and the intelligence network under the Ministry of Home Affairs not know about it? The Lok Sabha Secretariat has suspended eight security personnel belonging to various security agencies that were on deputation for Parliament security.

As a coincidence, a day before the major security breach in the Lok Sabha, the Central Public Works Department floated a tender for additional security infrastructure, including security gadgets and bulletproof enclosure for security personnel, at an estimated cost of Rs 35 crore for the Parliament complex.

So the government was aware of the vulnerability of the security setup but chose not to get it in place before the grand opening of the new Parliament building.

Is it culpable negligence or sheer overconfidence? At an all-party meeting convened by Speaker Om Birla in the wake of the security lapse, some MPs pointed at shortcomings in the security protocol, driven in part by the shortage of parliamentary staff assigned to enforce it.

There are 150 vacancies for security personnel in the Parliament. The recommendations of the committee tasked with looking at enhanced security in the new Parliament building, were also overlooked.

Two additional observations are that the two people were allowed to stay in the visitor’s gallery even after their time had elapsed, and the fact that the two jumped into the Lok Sabha chamber from the public gallery without getting hurt perhaps points to the fact that they were agile and trained.

It could have been a repeat of the 2001 incident. Despite precautions, the accused were able to smuggle in smoke pistols that were used to fire yellow smoke, which created panic among members.

The security lapse was red flagged by MPs for quite some time it seems, but plainly overlooked. For instance during the session when the women’s reservation bill was being passed, when a large number of people were heard shouting slogans from the public gallery.

After a threat by Sikhs for Justice Chief Gurpatwant Singh Pannun to attack Parliament about a fortnight back, the security concerns were once again raised by the MPs, but the MHA chose to ignore it.