VIP security duty is one of the most challenging jobs in the police force. Some VIPs are paranoid about their safety and overlook the revulsion their cavalcade causes in the public mind. They forget that those in charge of their protection should be treated with civility and consideration. Then there are those who recklessly expose themselves to security risks and force the personnel accompanying them to deviate from the stipulated protocol.
During my long career in the police, I had to face such piquant situations at times. One such incident remains vivid in my mind. I was then posted as the Range DIG at Rourkela in Orissa. The President of India visited Rourkela to attend a function at the local steel plant. The then Union Commerce Minister Pranab Mukherjee arrived as the minister-in-waiting. There was a congregation of VIPs, including the Chief Minister, JB Patnaik. Hordes of bureaucrats and plant officers had gathered. Confusion prevailed all round.
The Government of India has laid down elaborate instructions to be followed during the visits of the Prime Minister and the President. These are encapsulated in a document known as the Blue Book. Going by the book, an elaborate security drill after the President’s arrival at the Rourkela airstrip had been worked out and thoroughly rehearsed. At the airstrip, people had gathered to welcome the VIP. They raised slogans and waved banners. When he alighted from the aircraft, the President was thrilled by the enthusiastic response. All of a sudden, he asked the driver to take his car near the crowd. The driver was flummoxed and did not know what to do. I was travelling with the President and respectfully pointed out that the car route may not be changed abruptly. Taking exception to my intervention, he cut me short and brusquely told me not to stand between him and the cheering crowd. He lost sight of the fact that the security drills and instructions had been meticulously worked out to safeguard the VIPs. In view of his insistence, I had no option but to remain silent. Fortunately, the visit passed off peacefully.
In my report to the state police headquarters, I highlighted the security problems caused by the VIP’s stubbornness and mentioned the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria at Sarajevo (June 28, 1914) — the spark that had ignited World War I. There had been a sudden change in the car route and the vehicle had been halted at a wrong place, which gave an opportunity to terrorists to open fire and kill the Archduke and his consort.
One does not know when the mindset of VIPs is going to change. Ironically, the mercurial ones compromise their own security sometimes and make the work of the police and the security staff more difficult and irksome.