Fracas over frisking of Ministers : Question of 'indignity' ?
- Sangai Express Editorial :: June 15, 2013 -

Z category security. Chief Minister O Ibobi comes under this category.

Hence the different layers of security point that one has to face to finally enter the 'home turf' of the man who has been the Chief Minister of Manipur for the last ten years and is set to complete 15 years after the end of the 10th Assembly.

Nothing wrong with the water tight security for the first among equals, especially in the face of the two audacious attacks launched at his official residence some years back.

Personnel of the Central Industrial Security Force, who have been deputed to guard him and his residence 24x7 are doing their job. Nothing wrong here.

The media is not privy to the procedures and processes of the security ring that is put up around any person coming under the Z category but this is no reason why questions should not be raised over the security arrangements put in place around such a personality.

This is all that more so in the face of the open disgust and displeasure demonstrated by some senior Cabinet Ministers and MLAs over the manner in which they were frisked before entering the sanctum sanctorum of the Chief Minister for a Cabinet meeting a few days back.

A question of inflated egos prompting the voice of dissent from the Cabinet Ministers or a question of protesting the 'indignity' of being frisked, despite being a member of the Council of Ministers ?

The answer may lie somewhere in between, but an all important point has been raised and rightly so.

Remember the debate triggered world wide when some airports in the western countries decided to go in for the X-Ray technology and subject all air passengers under the X-Ray scan ?

The protest or the debate was not about the overall security measures taken up but about invading the privacy of an individual.

There must obviously be some merit in this line of argument, for the X-Ray proposal was given a quiet burial in many airports.

Take the frisking of Cabinet Ministers while entering the official residence of the Chief Minister to a bigger canvass and see it from the perspectives of the common people, who have been frisked on more than one occasion in public places.

To be sure this comes along with the package of security measures taken up, especially during the visit of any VIP or political leaders from Delhi to Imphal but see it from the angle of the common man, who may have just stepped out from his home for the weekly marketing or shopping and a common thread may be read between what the Cabinet Ministers were subjected to and what the common man has had to endure for years.

Security for the VIPs should not be compromised, this is a given, but should it come at the price of subjecting the citizens to indignity and at times embarrassing moments ?

Cops and security personnel barking out orders and telling everyone to fall in line and then be told to raise their arms and subjecting them to frisking cannot be a pleasant experience for anyone. But this is how it has been for decades in Manipur, especially in Imphal.

A few years back, the Imphal based newspapers went to town, armed with photographic evidences, of how even women were frisked in the open.

This is the mindset, a mentality which has been dictating the notion of ensuring security for the VIPs or the political leaders.

In many ways, what happened to the Cabinet Ministers and MLAs inside the Chief Minister's official residence may be said to be a spill over effect of what has been happening to the common people for ages on the streets and roads of Imphal.

A trend coming full circle, it may be said.