The 13th of December, 2001. It was a day printed in pitch black in the annals of the history of India, one of the deep blights independent India had to suffer during the course of its democratic odyssey.
On that fateful day at 11.45 a. m., five hardcore terrorists tried to storm into the Sanctum Sanctorum of our democracy, the House of Parliament. They drove in a car bearing fake identity stickers of the Parliament and the Ministry of Home. The terrorists unleashed an atmosphere of death and panic hitherto unknown, gunning down nine including the security personnel and injuring seventeen. Anyway the security men could thwart the evil plot of the terrorists to get inside the house though a few of them had to sacrifice their lives. All of the five terrorists were killed. They were well armed with AK- 47 rifles , grenades and grenade launchers. The ministers and Members of Parliament escaped unhurt.
Later a detailed inquiry was conducted and it was found that the five terrorists belonged to two outfits nurtured and supported by Pakistan, namely Jaish- e- Mohammed and Lashkar -e- Taiba. L. K. Advani, Home Minister, informed the Parliament the details of the inquiry. The plot of the assault and its execution was masterminded from across the border, he said.
The gruesome incident caused the already deteriorated bilateral relationship between India and Pakistan to go down further and it seemed that an open war was imminent. But both had to show restraint and move back mainly due to international pressure.
The inquiry also unearthed the conspiracy involved and arrested four persons, namely, Mohammed Afsal Guru, former member of JKLF, Showkath Hussain Guru, Afsan Guru, wife of Showkath and S A R Geelani, a teacher of the University of Delhi. Of these conspirators, Afsal Guru was executed in February, 2013.
Recalling the assault, on December 13,2023,the 22nd anniversary of the incident,there was another shocking episode of breach in the high security fortification in the House of Parliament. Two intruders entered the Lok Sabha,jumping from the public gallery and leaped towards the Speaker's Chamber, stepping on the tables where the MPs seated. One of them burst a gas canister kept inside his shoes and released yellow smoke. Another shouted slogans : “Autocracy won't be allowed, Hold the value of our Constitution high, Bharat Matha Ki Jai, Jai Bheem, Jai Bharat!”.
It is obvious that the intruders were well aware of the loopholes of the security system of even our House of Parliament. The very thought makes our head spin if at all the intruders belonged
to a suicide squad who could release a cloud of lethal smoke from a gas canister. It would have been far more catastrophic than indiscriminate gunfire. This incident is a grim reminder of the challenges ahead as far as our security is concerned. In fact, a shudder passes through the spine of each Indian at the thought about the security lapse as the above. It gives us little relief that those arrested in connection with the intrusion - Manoranjan, Sagar Sharma, Neelam Devi, Amol Shinde, Vishal Sharma and the mastermind Lalit Jha - not found to have any previous criminal record since it could rightly be assumed that the real culprits behind the scene have chosen them rather carefully to evade investigation or inquiry.
It is to be recalled that Gurpatwant Singh Pannoon, the self proclaimed head of an outlawed terrorist outfit called ‘Sikhs for Just’ had given out the threat of an assault on Parliament. His words were that he would ‘ shake the very basement of the Parliament ‘.The threat appeared in a video he shared with Afsal Guru's poster. The security had been further beefed up in and around the Parliament considering the threat. But the fact that the intruders could make a mockery of it, getting easily inside one of our high security zones like the Parliament makes us panic - stricken. It is reliably learned that the lapse of security in the public gallery and the lack of alertness of some security personnel can be accounted for the intrusion.
Our nation is fast becoming an economic power globally as well as a military superpower. It is not a secret that there are reactionary forces acting internationally to destabilize our country. Now it has become clear that the protest against Citizens’ Bill and the farmers’ struggle have been geared from outside by agencies of shaded character to create disruption in the very fabric of the country. Further, this may be the tip of the iceberg, a ninth of the conspiracy remaining underground. Perhaps there is a chain of reactionary forces working to weaken the spirit of our motherland.
The House of Parliament is the sacred abode of our democracy where lawmakers turn the wheel of governance. The need of the hour is to set action plans to make such areas of high security impervious and unbreachable to terrorists, intruders and reactionary forces at any cost.
* (Writer is former President of FOKANA and Chairman of NAMAM, USA)