THE security breach in Parliament was far more serious than the ordinary -- right on the anniversary of the 2001 terror strike at the Parliament Complex. In fact, the word ‘breach’ is far too mild to describe the development. For, it showed all signs of an organised and conspiratorial attempt to shame the Government and shock the nation. When such an incident takes place, duty it is of the authorities to take the quickest-possible steps to identify the guilty of security lapse and punish them without fear or favour. This action should be taken with full public knowledge -- with an iron hand. For, when two persons get into the Parliament Complex, push their way through security cordons and arrive in the Visitors’ Gallery with gas cannisters hidden on their person, they could have caused untold misery to the nation. Imagine what could have happened if those cannisters contained a poisonous gas or an incendiary material that could cause terrible havoc there. Imagine what could have happened if the man whom Members of Parliament (MPs) captured had a loaded gun with him. The incident, thus, could have had terrible ramifications. The first task, therefore, of the security agencies should be to bare the dirty details of the conspiracy and punish the gang that put its dirty design into practice. The second task should be to identify the mastermind and punish him or her with such hardness as to ensure that nobody else would dare to indulge in such nonsense in the future.

 

The conspiracy angle is obvious in this episode. For, when a group of diverse people with no known common thread to bring its members together, zeroes in on Parliament Complex to stage ‘protests’, then the conspiratorial angle is obvious. For, on paper at least, the members of the group seemed to have no obvious reason to form the outfit for whatever purpose. Obviously, the entire episode was a planned affair and was marked for the anniversary of terror strike on Parliament 22 years ago. There are reasons to suspect that this diverse group was put together for the purpose with meticulous planning. The group managed to enter the Parliament Complex -- that also included the long wait for the passes to arrive from a Bharatiya Janata Party MP (which provided them with a good cover). Naturally, when such an incident takes place, the nation expects the hardest possible punishment not only to the field operators but also to their masters and their financiers. In other words, the Government will have to keep investigating into the problem to the last detail and expose the whole thing. It will also have to examine possibilities of foreign agents working on the plot to create disturbance in the country.

 

The effort, obviously, was to bring the Modi Government into disrepute -- about six months ahead of Lok Sabha elections. A clamour has already begun asking for blood of Union Home Minister Mr. Amit Shah himself. This demand has little substance, though. But what is important is that the incident has given the Opposition a chance to lambaste the Modi Government for its failure on the security front. The Opposition would not mind even citing the terror strike in 2001 when Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee was Prime Minister. So, the Opposition would be happy accusing the BJP of failure to keep the security interests uppermost. The Government has acted swiftly. The Police have rounded up most suspects. Mr. Pratap Simha, the BJP MP through whom one of the attackers took the pass for entry into Parliament Complex and then the building, may resign. But it must be noted that the security breach was very serious and should make the Government sit up and take notice.