Jammu: Former police, military and civil officers, who served in Jammu and Kashmir at the highest level, have described the security breach during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Punjab as “very serious and unprecedented in the history of independent India.”
Participating in an over 90 minute virtual conference anchored and hosted by former legislator and senior BJP leader Devender Singh Rana on January 8, they observed that the incident could neither be trivialised nor ignored keeping in view its implications on the national security and ramifications over the unity of the nation.
Former Chief Secretary and serving chairman J&K PSC B R Sharma, former Director General of Punjab Police, P S Gill, former Directors General of J&K Police Kuldeep Khoda, Dr Ashok Bhan, K Rajendra Kumar, Dr S P Vaid, former veterans Maj Gen Goverdhan Singh Jamwal, Lt General R K Sharma and Brig Anil Gupta participated in the virtual conference.
The participants unequivocally termed the breach a “manifestation of failure of the Punjab administration, especially the police”, saying the SPG Act was “blatantly ignored and Blue Book violated deliberate attempts were made to undermine the gravity of the situation in which the country’s top political executive was almost trapped on flyover with no route to escape in an ambush like scenario.”
“This was nearly an ambush like situation, which reflects the conspiracy angle as the SPG was not informed about the developing situation and, in fact, protestors having blocked the road, to the SPG which could have taken a call to call off the road journey,” they opined.
The participants were unanimous in demanding expeditious and fair probe to fix the responsibility and dispensing exceptional punishment for laxity so that such incidents do not recur anywhere across the country.