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	Feb 21, 2000

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Water Stains

Uttar Pradesh's inert CM has let down India

When Deepa Mehta was forced to abandon her film project in Varanasi, the Uttar Pradesh Government was quite clearly left carrying the Water can. In the week prior to the cancellation of the making of Water, the film's crew re-obtained permission from the Centre and acquired every legal clearance necessary. The onus was on the state Government, acting through the district authorities, to facilitate the flow of Water. That it was disinclined to do so was evident when Chief Minister Ram Prakash Gupta and a number of his cabinet colleagues criticised the very idea of the film and, subsequently, banned shooting citing law and order problems. The state Government is to blame for two reasons. First, it washed its hands off the business and conveniently left matters to the Centre. When Delhi directed it to allow the film to be shot, it did precious little. Second, Gupta's self-confessed inability to control crowds and prevent a breakdown of law and order must put question marks on his administrative acumen.

Uttar Pradesh's inert CM has let down India With Mehta and her team scouting for other locales, the Varanasi chapter seems over. What is left behind is a tragic coarsening of India's liberal spirit, one that the regime in Lucknow has to take the dubious credit for. Gupta has shown himself only too willing to capitulate to extra-constitutional authorities, vested interests, sundry ideological surrogates of the Sangh Parivar and plain crowd pressure. Now the circus will move to another state, perhaps Madhya Pradesh, where senior BJP leaders have already promised Mehta a hot reception. If any other state administration manages to tackle such patent blackmail with more resolve, the embarrassment of Gupta, and of the BJP, will only be compounded. It is in India's interest that Water be shot in India, somewhere in India. It is in the BJP's interest that Ram Prakash Gupta gets himself another job.

Protection Racket

VIP security is a public menace. Trimming it is a great idea.

VIP Security is a public menac. Trimming it is a great idea In pruning VIP security, the Home Ministry has taken its most sensible decision in a long time. The elaborate arrangements that pass for security measures in India are based less on genuine threats and more on a fetish for status symbols. As such, the removal of National Security Guard commandos from 14 of the 19 people who were entitled to them is overdue. So is the announced six-monthly review of threat perceptions and security responses. It will help rationalise what has hitherto been a flagrant state patronage network, one that sees some 5,000 Delhi policemen -- 13 per cent of the city's force -- guarding less than 400 VIPs. When the President or prime minister is in a public place, the security operation involves 3,000 policemen plus the Special Protection Group (SPG) or the President's Bodyguard.

The prime minister of Israel is one of the most threatened, and protected, politicians on Earth but ordinary people barely notice his guards. A month ago, the British prime minister travelled by the London underground without disturbing co-passengers in the same compartment. On the other hand, in 1997, a hapless Delhi scooterist who happened to be driving close to the then prime minister's entourage found himself beaten to pulp. As a recent SPG note to the Union Cabinet admitted, "VIP security is highly obtrusive", with an emphasis on "quantity and not on quality". Nondescript politicians like Matang Singh and Sajjan Kumar -- with no known record of having been at the forefront of any battle against terrorism -- use an exaggerated threat perception to get themselves on the protected list. Often security is used as a camouflage to stay put in state-owned houses. India has a duty to protect those truly in the danger zone; it has no time to look after congenital freeloaders.

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