In India, it is common to throw an invisible ring of plainclothesmen around the PM

The first thing to remember - says a former high official responsible for the security of Very Important Persons - is that most attempts at assassinating a leader anywhere in the world are the handiwork of some exhibitionist crank trying to draw attention to himself or to a grievance with which he is obsessed.The question of how much security is to be provided to a prime minister in a democratic country like India comes up routinely for review. It has now come into focus sharply in the wake of the Makalu sabotage incident.International conspiracies apart - which in any case have ebbed with the passing away of absolute monarchs - the modern assassin is often a loner who has difficulty in relating to people, an introverted personality at odds with society and living in a fantasy world of his own.Calculated violence against the State now often takes the form of national or international terrorism - meticulously planned and all the more effective because of the fragile nature of much contemporary civilisation.Some of the difficulty in guarding a popular leader in a democracy arises from the very nature of an open society. The leader here must be seen and heard by the people. To put him or her behind an impenetrable curtain of security is a self-defeating exercise.In India, it is common to throw an invisible ring of plainclothesmen around the prime minister. Indeed, the more charismatic a national leader, the more security he or she needs: American presidents, who are blown up to larger than life size by the media, are particularly vulnerable.The disguise in which our invisible men appear matches the occasion. At airport gatherings, they dress in lounge suits to merge with protocol officials; at public meetings, they turn out as khadi-clad party activists. Their primary task is to appear as normal as possible, but to keep a wary eye on the uneasy stranger or any untoward movement.The drill for VIP flights is familiar to all officials concerned. The first question is whether the prime minister will travel by a commercial or an air force flight. Countries less affluent than the US cannot permanently set aside, as the Americans do, Air Force One for all presidential flights, guarded and maintained by the military.With a decision made on a commerical flight, a basic four-fold security drill is put through. The aircraft gets a thorough maintenance check from a number of interdepartmental officials. A mixed squad makes a physical inspection for concealed bombs and explosives.When these checks are all clear, a sample of the plane's fuel is sent for analysis and the fuel tank sealed. From that movement on, the plane is placed under a 24-hour armed police guard. The Makalu check had clearly not yet reached any of these stages when its cables were found to have been tampered with.Two factors must be reckoned with in determining how much security can be provided to the head of a government in any country; the temper of the particular society, and how difficult it is to remove a leader by constitutional means.The British Prime Minister Mrs Thatcher, for instance, can go around London without too much security, obtrusive or other. Indeed, her Conservative predecessor, Edward Heath, could often be seen walking to his office through St James' Park in the heart of London - with no more than a couple of 'shadows" keeping abreast of him, as he politely greeted anyone who cared to recognise him. In a similar situation, an Indian prime minister would be mobbed by a mass of humanity.On the ease with which a prime minister may be defeated at the polls, we may now - since 1977 - claim to be on par with the British. In Britain, of course, what also helps to rub off the prime minister's charisma is the fact that, at any time, former prime ministers are a dime-a-dozen.Perhaps, Morarji Desai - soon after 1977 - in the public euphoria of a Janata victory and the temporary mending of national consensus was one prime minister who could afford to lower the still pervasive, but on the whole unobtrusive, barriers around 1, Safdarjang Road. But security procedures were soon tightened when demonstrators began marching to the prime minister's official residence to lay a corpse at the gates.Published By: AtMigration Published On: Nov 21, 2013 16:31 IST--- ENDS ---

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In India, it is common to throw an invisible ring of plainclothesmen around the PM

The question of how much security is to be provided to a prime minister in a democratic country like India comes up routinely for review.

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