The Photograph of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s motorcade stranded on a flyover on the Ferozepur Highway on January 5 with officers of the Special Protection Group surrounding the VVIP vehicle is etched deep in minds of people not only in this country but around the world. It was a security lapse of huge magnitude and keeping this in mind, a three-member bench of the Supreme Court set up a high-level committee headed by Justice Indu Malhotra, a retired Judge of the Apex Court and comprising amongst others senior officials of the National Investigation Agency, the Punjab Police, the Chandigarh Administration, and the Punjab and Haryana High Court.
While doing so, Chief Justice NV Ramana and his two colleagues, Justice Surya Kant and Justice Hima Kohli directed the Registrar of the High Court to seize all documents pertaining to the security arrangements. Simultaneously, the SC further stopped the probes by a Punjab Government Committee headed by Justice Mehtab Singh Gill and another one appointed by the Centre. While the report of the SC panel is yet to be made public, the issue remains how could such a thing happen to the most protected person in the country. This was a totally unforgivable act and responsibility for the breach should be fixed and whoever was involved must be punished. In this instance, the role of the Special Protection Group, which apart from providing proximate security to the Prime Minister has the powers under its Act to override any other agency in this regard, must be thoroughly examined. The question remains as to why was the Prime Minister made to undertake a long road journey when it was known that farmers had been protesting in the State.
If the Punjab Police had given the go-ahead for the road visit, then why did it not ensure that the passage was totally clear of any agitators. The Intelligence Bureau and other agencies which assist the SPG and the security establishment of the Centre must have also provided their inputs on the ground situation. The incident occurred during the poll campaign and unfortunately, an attempt was made to give it a political colour. This is not the correct way of looking at things and the SPG, the Punjab police and other agencies have a lot to answer. Modi while returning to Delhi from the Bhatinda airport had told a minister of the Charanjit Singh Channi government that he was going back alive. At the same time, Channi had maintained that the Prime Minister’s office had been made aware of the situation and was advised to abort the road journey.
Multiple questions need to be answered for the truth to come out. India has lost one sitting Prime Minister and one former Prime Minister to assassins who succeeded in breaching the security rings while successfully accomplishing their dastardly missions. Even Mahatma Gandhi was shot dead by a fanatic while he was going to his prayer meeting way back on January 30th, 1948. Adequate precautions need to be taken in the future and correctional measures relating to the lapse must be immediately carried out.
Surprisingly, on Saturday, commendation certificates to officers of the Punjab police were given for making praiseworthy arrangements for Prime Minister’s election rally in Jallandhar. This again brings into focus what happened on the Ferozepur Highway and obviously the officers who handled the visit have neither been punished nor given commendation certificates. The same goes for the SPG, which surely must have conducted its internal inquiries besides giving their version of things to Justice Indu Malhotra.