India appears to be humiliated and outraged and the reason??? One of our most popular figure of recent times, Dr A P J Abdul Kalam was frisked by Continental Airlines officials before boarding the aircraft. The print media as well as electronic media are up with arms in criticizing the 'incident'. There was ruckus in the parliament over this issue and our govt has lodged FIR against the 'guilty'. Frankly speaking, I am not amused. We have a history of beating around the bush on all the non-trivial issues in the world but will refuse to admit this ostensibly uncovered truth.
Personally speaking, I do not see anything wrong with the frisking of Mr Kalam. Like most of my fellow Indians, I also admire him and have high respect for him. However, considering what has happened in recent past, I think it is high time that we come out of the VIP syndrome. Why do we have to treat a VIP as some sort of God? Afterall, isn't a VIP a human being in the end ? To allow him to fly unchecked is a threat to the security to other fellow passengers. India has seen the Kanishka bombing and IC-814 hijack case...so why to take a risk? Or are we waiting for a VIP to hijack a plane before we accept our mistake and then make up laws stripping VIPs of this privilege. We have often heard of the criminal-politician nexus and a sizable number of our MPs and MLAs have criminal background. Treating them as the privileged ones is like playing with lives of people. Someday, we as a country have to learn to be tough, be proactive and to treat all its citizens at par.
Human life is of paramount importance and once lost, the void in the lives of relatives/friends can't be filled. If I was travelling in a plane, I would want EACH and EVERY passenger checked, whoever he/she may be. I do have a right to care about my own life..don't I...or have the VIPs have snatched away that also?
Friday, July 24, 2009
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5 comments:
100% agreed!!!
I agree with u Mohit..its high time we make the public servants realise that they are Very Important Persons only because they are installed to carry out Very Important Responsibilities and not to inflate their worthless egos.
We are feeling bad in this particular case because Dr.Kalam as a person and as an office bearer has an unblemished record which we all respect and admire. But there are thousands of MPs, MLAs,MLCs and what-nots, who think its their 'right' to abuse power and supercede procedures even in matters of trivial importance.
We should treat such people just like a 'common-man' because that's exactly what they are- a 'common-man' representing 'common-man'.
Kapil, I respect your PoV.I also admire Mr Kalam..however, does having an unblemished and clean past record gives someone a clean chit for the future?? My only concern is that whatever may be the past credentials of a person, when it comes to safety and law, there should be no compromises made. We have already suffered a lot... and none among us wants a repeat of the past incidents.
Mohit, I also am not saying that Dr. Kalam should be given a clean chit just like that..I am saying that there is scope for sympathy in his case, but these procedures should be followed for anyone and everyone.
If I seem to convey the message that past record should be good enough to exempt you from the security checks then let me admit that it is not the case.
Well, i dont agree with ur point. Everything has a reason & a non-reason. Have u ever thought what is the reason or the law behind non frisking of VIP's? Ok. I dont know the law myself but there must be some strong reason.
It's not a matter of ego's etc but with the "precious time" of imp people like MS & BO. (Manmohan Singh & Barrack Obama). If u can't trust these people while letting them go inside a plane, how can u entrust these people with running nations.
And the fault is urs. I mean ours :-) Why did we elect people with criminal background. And what do u think, the politicians with criminal background with come & openly hijack the planes. They dont need to do that. They are hijacking common people daily by depriving them of precious resources they are entitled to.
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