India’s fawning VVIP culture is so insidious as to have led to the stacking of a wholly disproportionate number of securitymen to protect important people. At a time when the nation is shocked by the number of rape incidents, it appears the police is far more concerned about VIP security than visible policing that may help bring down the crime rate.
The statistics could not be more damning than having one policeman for every 761 citizens while sparing nearly 50,000 policemen to protect close to 15,000 VIPs. If the cops placed on “bandobast” duty as state chief ministers and Union ministers move around are counted, hardly any are left for normal policing of heavily populated areas. The Supreme Court’s stern observations on the issue should stir the government into quickly pruning the VIP numbers to those who really need protection and presenting that list to Parliament soon.
The scene of police escorts of VIP motorcades, cocked guns pointing at ordinary people who wade every day in generally chaotic traffic conditions, hardly seems democratic. To reduce the security cover to a manageable number of so-called important people and use far more sophistication in technology and concealed weaponry in securing their immediate environment should be the norm, not this naked display of security personnel in a silly bid to scare away people by sheer numbers.